Reaching Nature Connection invites you to join in an exciting weekend of hands-on, research-based, and anecdotal learning. As always, the conference will be infused with songs, games, stories, and deeper nature connection.

Reaching Nature Connection provides an opportunity to set your watch aside and allow the leaders of the conference to hold time for you. The rhythm of each day is designed to move between active and contemplative learning, with a thematic thread running throughout. We will flow between lecture and hands-on components, weaving together our learning through a variety of approaches, with each new component building on the next.

Collaboratively taught by Erin Boehme, Kelly Villarruel, and Lia Grippo with special guest Doug Elliott.

See where the cougars and otters sleep overnight, meet black bears that are not commonly on display, learn the ins and outs of what it takes to care for the animals year-round, observe a training session and find out why the animals call Grandfather Mountain home.

Offered on weekends, April – October.

Each day, you can pre-purchase tickets during for a specific time slot, allowing us to maintain safety and limit the number of people at the maze at once.

Time slots to choose from:

• 9-11am
• 11:30am-1:30pm
• 2-4pm
• 4:30-6:30pm

• General Safety Guidelines

  • Masks must be worn at all times, except for children under the age of four years old.
  • Maintain social distancing with those outside your family.
  • There will be a maximum number of attendees at the event at a time. Attendees will register and pre-purchase tickets. You will be able to select the 2-hour block of time you want to attend with your family. Time slots will automatically close once the max limit is reached.
  • Please promptly leave the corn maze when your 2 hour time slot is up, so we can do a cleaning before the next group arrives.
  • Minimize time indoors. You may use the indoor restrooms, and check-in indoors. We will give you a map for the maze and offer pumpkins, t-shirts, and other fun merchandise. But we won’t let you linger! Time to get outside, stay safe, and have fun!
  • Hand sanitizer will be available throughout the event.
    

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Welcome to Sky Top Orchard!

We are asking guests to visit on weekdays whenever possible. We offer the same items you love on those days as we do on weekends plus it helps keep crowds down on weekends. Thank you!

The mountains of western North Carolina are full of pick your own u-pick orchards. We offer more. In addition to a long list of apple varieties, visit Sky Top Orchard and you’ll enjoy panoramic mountain views, orchard ponds with ducks and geese, a barnyard area with sheep, goats, chickens, turkeys, peacocks and more, a bamboo forest to explore, lots of picnic areas and, of course, a mountaintop of fragrant apple and fruit trees. View our downloadable map to see all that we have to offer and visit our picking schedule to find out what’s available now.

When you purchase a bushel of apples, a wagon load of pumpkins or a cooler full of apple cider you’ll take home more than the makings for delicious fall recipes, you’ll take home a mountain of memories too. And don’t forget our famous apple cider doughnuts. They’re an autumn tradition. We bet you can’t eat just one.

Ready to join us on top of our mountain? Plan Your Visit Today!

To keep guests and our staff safe, we require face masks (covering both nose and mouth) by employees and guests in any area where social distancing is difficult so plan to wear them in the fruit stand, in line for doughnuts, in any areas that are not out in the orchard where you are picking. You must also maintain a distance of 6 feet in all lines and areas where you encounter others.

On exhibit Saturdays and Sundays from 12 – 4 p.m. (weather permitting), Rocky Cove Railroad is a G-Scale (garden scale) model train that demonstrates the coming of trains to western North Carolina at the turn of the 20th century. The exhibit is located below the Grand Garden Promenade.

Make your own Agave Didgeridoo and learn to play it!

A Two-Day Immersion into playing & creating, learning & sharing, exploring & experiencing the incredible resonance of humankind’s first musical instrument…The Didgeridoo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okQLJYZgkIk&t=16s
Check out the video all about this immersion!

This experience offers a depth of connection with this communal exploration of ancestral vibration. Together, with reverence to the original tribe, we forge our instruments through the flame.

Play with & listen to a variety of enchanting sounds, overtones, grumbles, vocals, toots and more. Anybody can learn circular breathing. This breath-work is deeply profound and transformational.

We will talk about the native peoples, their ceremonies, their stories. Send them reverence and gratitude. Enjoy camping in a gorgeous serene land with mountain vistas, open air vintage barn, and a swimming pond in the oldest mountains in the world.
We will have ~~ Evenings of Spontaneous Music Creativity
~Sharing Circles ~Potluck dinners & Dinner served Saturday Evening
~ Symphony of Serenity: Sound Healing Meditation featuring the Didgeridoo!

The entire weekend, and taking your didgeridoo home is $360, and there are only 12 spaces total.
-To secure your spot, a $180 deposit is required.
Paypal your deposit to “friends or family” to [email protected]
“I still look back to that weekend as one of the best of my life.”-Cody-
Visit SoulMedicineVibrations.com for more information, photos and video.

Tuxedo Junction is an iconic example of a cover music group. It has been playing the hits of countless other musical acts from the 1930s to present-day over the past three decades. The Asheville-based Tuxedo Junction was founded as a nightclub house band by drummer/vocalist/band leader, Joey Moore, with the band’s first performing date on January 1, 1988. Joey and the original lineup performed for the club owner for two years and finally branched out to become a more versatile group than what the country/rock n’ roll     club dictated.  Passing decades, and hundreds of events later, Tuxedo Junction continues to delight audiences with songs and musical styles that represent some of the best music from the past 80+ years!

http://tuxedojunctionband.com/index.htm

Flat Rock folksinger, Tom Fisch, after years of traveling and performing has honed his shows into a relaxed exchange between artist and performer. Interspersed with stories and anecdotes, his concerts flow smoothly from a beloved traditional song to one of Tom’s fine originals or a favorite cover from one of the many artists who have inspired his music through the years. Tom says, “It makes me feel so good to see people leave my show with a smile on their face and a song on their lips. I know I’ve done my job.”
Toms’ style encompasses, “… great acoustic music…a cross between Tony Rice, James Taylor and Guy Clark. A style deeply rooted in the influences of artists such as Doc Watson, John Prine, Pete Seeger and John Denver.”

Each summer, Blue Ridge Community College offers summer concerts beside the College lake as a gift to the community. These free Sunday evening concerts are scheduled from 5 to 7 p.m. and feature a wide range of musical and vocal groups. The public is invited to bring lawn chairs and picnics to enjoy the music by the lake.

In the event of inclement weather, the concert will take place in the Patton Building.

North Carolina Balloon Festival
October 2, 5:00 pm – October 4, 9:00 pm
Hot air balloons (weather permitting), food trucks, retail vendors and activities for the family!
Details
Start:
October 2, 5:00 pm
End:
October 4, 9:00 pm

GHOSTED: COMEDY WALKING TOUR

COVID has postponed our bus tours, but it won’t stop us from laughing! Our brand new experience is an up tempo theatrical walking tour of haunted Asheville. You and 13 others will depart from the LaZoom Room and follow an undead guide through Asheville’s creepy streets in search of window into the past. Along the way, we’ll encounter real ghosts that will have you jumping out of your skin. Not really! Or really? Take the tour and find out!

UNIHORN SUNDAY NIGHTS @ ICONIC!!
Comprised of some of Asheville’s funkiest musicians UniHorn features explosive brass, sweeping keyboard runs, and high energy tasty beats! Mixing in both original compositions and covers UniHorn knows how to keep the crowd moving and the party raging!!

GHOSTED: COMEDY WALKING TOUR

COVID has postponed our bus tours, but it won’t stop us from laughing! Our brand new experience is an up tempo theatrical walking tour of haunted Asheville. You and 13 others will depart from the LaZoom Room and follow an undead guide through Asheville’s creepy streets in search of window into the past. Along the way, we’ll encounter real ghosts that will have you jumping out of your skin. Not really! Or really? Take the tour and find out!

Welcome to Sky Top Orchard!

We are asking guests to visit on weekdays whenever possible. We offer the same items you love on those days as we do on weekends plus it helps keep crowds down on weekends. Thank you!

The mountains of western North Carolina are full of pick your own u-pick orchards. We offer more. In addition to a long list of apple varieties, visit Sky Top Orchard and you’ll enjoy panoramic mountain views, orchard ponds with ducks and geese, a barnyard area with sheep, goats, chickens, turkeys, peacocks and more, a bamboo forest to explore, lots of picnic areas and, of course, a mountaintop of fragrant apple and fruit trees. View our downloadable map to see all that we have to offer and visit our picking schedule to find out what’s available now.

When you purchase a bushel of apples, a wagon load of pumpkins or a cooler full of apple cider you’ll take home more than the makings for delicious fall recipes, you’ll take home a mountain of memories too. And don’t forget our famous apple cider doughnuts. They’re an autumn tradition. We bet you can’t eat just one.

Ready to join us on top of our mountain? Plan Your Visit Today!

To keep guests and our staff safe, we require face masks (covering both nose and mouth) by employees and guests in any area where social distancing is difficult so plan to wear them in the fruit stand, in line for doughnuts, in any areas that are not out in the orchard where you are picking. You must also maintain a distance of 6 feet in all lines and areas where you encounter others.

Welcome to Sky Top Orchard!

We are asking guests to visit on weekdays whenever possible. We offer the same items you love on those days as we do on weekends plus it helps keep crowds down on weekends. Thank you!

The mountains of western North Carolina are full of pick your own u-pick orchards. We offer more. In addition to a long list of apple varieties, visit Sky Top Orchard and you’ll enjoy panoramic mountain views, orchard ponds with ducks and geese, a barnyard area with sheep, goats, chickens, turkeys, peacocks and more, a bamboo forest to explore, lots of picnic areas and, of course, a mountaintop of fragrant apple and fruit trees. View our downloadable map to see all that we have to offer and visit our picking schedule to find out what’s available now.

When you purchase a bushel of apples, a wagon load of pumpkins or a cooler full of apple cider you’ll take home more than the makings for delicious fall recipes, you’ll take home a mountain of memories too. And don’t forget our famous apple cider doughnuts. They’re an autumn tradition. We bet you can’t eat just one.

Ready to join us on top of our mountain? Plan Your Visit Today!

To keep guests and our staff safe, we require face masks (covering both nose and mouth) by employees and guests in any area where social distancing is difficult so plan to wear them in the fruit stand, in line for doughnuts, in any areas that are not out in the orchard where you are picking. You must also maintain a distance of 6 feet in all lines and areas where you encounter others.