Capitol Reef Orchards

The Fruita orchards are the leftovers of a Mormon settlement, still maintained by the park, and when a block is ripe you can walk in with a ladder the park provides and pick as much as you can eat for free. What you carry out you weigh and pay for at an honesty stand, usually a couple of dollars a pound. Cherries come first in June, then apricots, peaches, pears and apples into September. Call the harvest hotline before you commit; ripeness moves a week either way each season.