Carter Mountain Orchard

A working fruit farm parked on top of a mountain, reached by a switchback lane that climbs to roughly 400 m. The payoff is the view: Charlottesville laid out below, the Piedmont rolling east, the Blue Ridge stacked up on the western horizon.

Peaches run through the summer, apples from late August into autumn, and the country store turns out warm cider donuts, pies, ice cream and hard cider. Picnic tables line the edge of the ridge, and on summer and autumn evenings the orchard puts on live music and sunset nights that draw as many locals as visitors.

Practical: peak apple weekends require timed tickets and the access road backs up badly; a weekday morning or a late summer afternoon is far more pleasant. Part of the Chiles family's century-old orchard operation.