Northwest Arkansas's primary dedicated u-pick apple orchard, run by a family that's farmed this land since 1824 — the Fall Festival dates (Sep 12-Nov 1, 2026) are on the site, but they cover the whole festival, not necessarily an apple-specific picking window.
Rivercrest Orchard, operating as McGarrah Farms in Fayetteville, is described by multiple regional sources as the primary dedicated u-pick apple orchard in Northwest Arkansas. That’s a meaningful distinction in a region where most other listings in this dataset are diversified farms with apples as a side crop. The land itself has been farmed by the McGarrah family since 1824, per the orchard’s own materials — a genuinely long history that predates Arkansas statehood by a year.
The most important nuance in this record is the difference between two things that sound the same but aren’t: the orchard’s Fall Festival calendar, and the actual window when apples are ripe and ready to pick. The site lists the Fall Festival running September 12 through November 1, 2026, with a detailed hours breakdown. But that’s the operating window for the whole festival — corn maze, playground, pumpkin patch, and orchard together — not a statement that apples specifically are pickable for the entire stretch. Apples in the Ozarks region typically have their own narrower ripening windows depending on variety, and none are named in this record, so don’t assume “the festival is open” automatically means “the apples you want are on the tree” on any given festival date.
The hours themselves are unusually specific for a listing in this batch: Saturday 10am-8pm, Sunday 10am-6pm, and Friday 3pm-8pm starting October 2, with select Thursday and Monday dates added in October. That level of detail suggests a well-organized seasonal operation used to handling festival crowds. One small caveat: while the site carries a 2026 copyright, the specific festival dates weren’t explicitly labeled “2026” in the page content retrieved, so this record treats that information as very likely current but not fully source-certified — worth a quick glance at the site yourself, or a call to 479-841-0465, if you’re planning around it precisely.
Beyond the orchard itself, several regional sources — Arkansas.com and Only In Arkansas among them — describe the property as also growing strawberries, blackberries, pumpkins, and flowers. Combined with the corn maze and playground listed as activities, this reads as a full seasonal agritourism destination built around the orchard rather than a bare-bones u-pick stop. If you’re bringing kids who might tire of apple-picking after twenty minutes, there’s clearly more to do here than at some of the smaller, apples-only listings in this region.
The record marks pre_picked as false, meaning there’s no confirmed option to simply buy pre-picked apples if you’d rather skip walking the rows. If a hands-on picking experience isn’t what you’re after, that’s worth knowing before you go.
No apple varieties are named anywhere in this record, and no pricing is stated for admission, u-pick apples, or any of the festival activities. For a farm this well-documented in other respects, those are notable gaps — likely because the site’s public pages emphasize the festival experience over line-item pricing and variety detail.
Rivercrest Orchard is at 2991 S Dead Horse Mountain Rd in Fayetteville, Washington County, in the Northwest Arkansas / Ozarks region. Coordinates on file are a Fayetteville city-center estimate rather than a geocoded point for the exact rural address.
This is the closest thing to a dedicated apple destination in Northwest Arkansas, backed by two centuries of family farming history and a genuinely detailed hours schedule. The one thing worth double-checking before you go is whether the specific apples you want are ripe on your visit date — the confirmed dates here are for the festival as a whole, not a variety-by-variety ripeness calendar.
The orchard's Fall Festival calendar runs September 12 through November 1, 2026, with hours varying by day (see below) — though this is the festival window as a whole rather than a confirmed apple-only picking period.
You want confirmed apple-specific ripeness dates rather than a general festival-season window.
September 12 through November 1, 2026, per the orchard's own website. The site carries a 2026 copyright but doesn't explicitly label these dates '2026' in the text retrieved, so this is treated as very likely but not fully certified current-season information.
Saturday 10am-8pm, Sunday 10am-6pm, and Friday 3pm-8pm starting October 2 — plus select Thursday and Monday dates in October, per the site.
No. Alongside the u-pick apple orchard, the property includes a corn maze, playground, and pumpkin patch, and secondary sources also mention strawberries, blackberries, pumpkins, and flowers grown on the property.
Since 1824, according to the orchard's own materials — a notably long family-farming history, run by the McGarrah family, for the Northwest Arkansas region.
No — the record marks pre_picked as false, so this appears to be u-pick only for apples.
September 12 – November 1, 2026. Hours: Sat 10am-8pm, Sun 10am-6pm, Fri 3pm-8pm (from Oct 2), plus select Thu/Mon dates in Oct.
Pricing was not published when we last checked.
Yes — it's a pick-your-own orchard.
2991 S Dead Horse Mountain Rd, Fayetteville, AR 72701, in Washington County. It is one of 4 orchards we track in Northwest Arkansas / Ozarks.
We track 4 orchards in Northwest Arkansas / Ozarks, 2 of which let you pick your own apples. The orchard has not published a starting price, so it cannot be compared on cost — call before you budget.
Its season runs about 51 days against a regional average of 51, so it is broadly in line with the rest of the region.
What sets it apart locally: it has a corn maze, a playground, pick-your-own apples, which most Northwest Arkansas / Ozarks orchards on our list do not.
There are 18 other orchards we track in Washington County. All Northwest Arkansas / Ozarks orchards →
Map pin is set to the town centre. Navigate to the street address above, not the pin.
rivercrestorchard.com · arkansas.com
Checked September 2026.