Home Care In Flat Rock, NC

Have you visited the Park at Flat Rock in Flat Rock, NC? We are always looking for fun and entertaining playgrounds for our kids and we hit the jackpot with The Park at Flat Rock.

The Park at Flat Rock is just an hour from Greenville, SC, and in our experience, it’s totally a worthy day trip spot near Hendersonville, NC.

I visit Flat Rock, NC often because my family loves to go to the Carl Sandburg Home for hiking and the opportunity to play with goats. It was on one of these adventures that we came across probably one of the coolest playgrounds I had been to with my kids at The Park at Flat Rock.

This article includes: About the Park at Flat Rock What is that super cool playground in Flat Rock, NC? Things to near The Park at Flat Rock Quick Review

The Park at Flat Rock

The park itself is beautiful and spacious, with 66 acres of green space and a 1.3 mile paved trail perfect for runners, walkers, and strollers. Bring a picnic blanket, lunch, and you’ve got a great day ahead of you there.

There is a pavilion you can rent out for events like birthday parties. It is located right next to the playground for little kids, which is great for keeping an eye on kids.

There are indoor bathrooms that are exceptionally clean as well plus a deck in the back of the building where the bathrooms are located where you can hang out and relax and take in pretty views of the park.

The Playgrounds

There are two playgrounds, the Tot Lot, which was finished in 2019, and the Bryan Playground, a maze of rope and obstacle courses, slides, and climbing walls.

The Bryan Playground is designed for kids ages 5-12 and it is so cool. It is two levels high with the second level having walkways and a giant rope net. The level below is full of fun obstacles with ropes, monkey bars, and shaky balance beams. On the other side of the hill from the Bryan Playground are a climbing wall and giant tunnel that goes the distance to the playground area.

The Tot Lot has a double swing that has a baby swing on one side and a platform for an older child or parent to stand and swing on the opposite side. It has smaller playground equipment for toddlers also.

The only shaded area is the pavilion next to the Tot Lot. While there are big rocks and benches for seating around the larger playground, there aren’t any shaded areas. You will find picnic tables in both areas.

Green Space and Nature Trails

Another great thing about the Park at Flat Rock are the pretty nature trails and paths two walk along gardens, woods, and a creek. They are easy, flat trails and many can be done with a stroller. We brought along our baby nephew on a recent trip and he loved cruising in the stroller and looking around at all the trees.

Nearby Things to Do

The Park at Flat Rock is right off Highway 25 and an easy drive from Greenville. There are several things to do near Hendersonville, NC and Flat Rock, NC to make the most out of the trip, such as:

The Park at Flat Rock, Quick Review

Favorites:

Drawbacks:

The Park at Flat Rock is free to visit and open dawn to dusk daily.

The Park at Flat Rock 55 Highland Golf Drive, Flat Rock, NC 828.435.0397

Flat Rock – National Rosé Day (June 10th) brings the release of Marked Tree Vineyard’s two newest Rosé wines. The La Vie en Rosé Festival is being held this weekend in Flat Rock. This is an annual Art, Music, and Wine festival held to celebrate their latest bottles of light, refreshing summer wine. It commences on National Rosé day. The idyllic setting overlooking the Blue Ridge Mountains allows visitors to hear melodic music as they view a beautiful sunset, looking out to the stars and the moon. 2023 will be the third year for this festival! This year’s festival is open daily on June 10th and 11th to the public at no charge; however, some events happening on the property are ticketed.

The two refreshing wines that are being introduced were named after the vineyard dogs—Ellie Mae Rose and Chloe. Ellie Mae is an off-dry Rosé made with our Vidal Blanc and Cab Franc. The Chloe Rosé is a dry blend of Lemberger and Muscat. This blend is first made with the Lemberger using the Saignée (French word for “To Bleed”) method, where a portion of free run juice does come in contact with the grape skins for color. Both Ellie Mae and Chloe Rosé come from vines planted in 2016 on the Pisgah Block of the vineyard.

A special commemorative stemless glass will be sold that day for $8.00 with both Ellie Mae and Chloe on the glass! There will be two options for tasting over the festival weekend that run every hour opposite of one another. One hour is a walking tour and tasting, and the next is a chocolate and wine tasting. You can explore a variety of Marked Tree wines as they are paired with local chocolate truffles made by Van’s Chocolates of Hendersonville! Taste new release wines, including the 2022 Chloé Rosé! Tickets are $35 per person, and the price includes a La Vie en Rosé souvenir stemless glass, four chocolate truffles, and pairings! Tickets are available for pre-purchase and day of the festival. Time slots are limited to 40 guests per time slot.

The festival brings together artists with an Artist Village, as a fundraiser for the Arts Council of Henderson County, which will be open from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm on both Saturday and Sunday. Some of the artists that will be present are Alan Gottheim, Diane Dean, Applewood Crafters, M Rathsack/Dancing Potter, June Vengoechea, Jorie Browder, Crystal Miller, Christina Becker, Walt Covington, Amy Casteel, Deb Bryant, Erica Bailey, Kate Stockman, Lyndsey Simpson, 8 Petals, and others. Many styles of artists will be represented.

On June 10th at 6:30 pm, the Hendersonville Youth Symphony will present a concert. For the ticket price of $45, you can enjoy a beautiful sunset over the Blue Ridge Mountains as you listen to the Symphony Youth String Quartet with Sean Maccaroni and Alexis Rubianes on violin and RoKem Bayne on the viola and Aiden Chacon on the cello. This will be followed by the Hendersonville Symphony’s Viola Duet with Daphne Bickley and Cameron Rehberg, playing Bach, Schumann, and other composers, including an American folk hymn. A portion of these ticket sales goes to the Hendersonville Symphony. The rain date is Sunday, June 11th. Tickets are available online at Markedtreevineyard.com then go to the “Vineyard Happenings” page.

In addition, there will be a Plein Air Painting Class given by Gary Cooley for both days, which require ticketing. Cooley primarily works in oil and displays his art at the Flat Rock Gallery in Hendersonville. Each day will start with a demonstration and instruction from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm. After lunch, the students paint from 1:00 pm until 5:00 pm. He noted, “Last year, it was a small class of approximately 6, and many of the students had certainly improved after the two days.” Supplies are not provided, so each artist is responsible for bringing their own easel and art supplies. For additional information or questions, contact Hannah at [email protected].

Henderson County was named an American Viticultural Area in 2019, designating Henderson County’s wine region, known as the Crest of the Blue Ridge, as a federally recognized location for wine grape production. Guests can learn more about the blossoming Henderson wine country and the thriving artist community. A portion of all ticket sales goes to the Arts Council. In addition, there will be a silent auction and a fashion show with a DJ and runway. 100% of the proceeds go to the Arts Council.

Marked Tree Vineyard

Marked Tree Vineyard at 623 Deep Gap Road is Flat Rock’s first winery and is a boutique vineyard located at an elevation of 2,300 feet on the Eastern Continental Divide. It is located between Mt. Pisgah and Tryon Peak in Flat Rock, North Carolina, in the AVA Crest of the Blue Ridge, Henderson County. The Vineyard’s grape varietals were selected to thrive in this region’s rocky, sandy, loam soil and the cool mountainous climate of this area. Some grape varietals from other regions will not ripen in this mountainous climate. Marked Tree has selected Vinifera and French hybrid vines that will ripen and produce the sugars, tannins, colors, and flavors to create a superior glass of wine on the Eastern Continental Divide. 2022 will be their fifth vintage.

The Vineyard offers 10 wine varieties made with European vinifera and French-American hybrid grapes in a picturesque setting, surrounded by panoramic views. These include Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, Grüner Veltliner, Chardonel, and Vidal Blanc. The Chardonel won Best Hybrid Wine in the NC Fine Wines Competition. In addition, Marked Tree Vineyard has a satellite tasting room in downtown Asheville at 14 Aston Street, just off Biltmore Avenue. The latest rosés to be unveiled will be offered there on Rosé Day as well. The Asheville tasting room is open Monday through Thursday 2-8 pm, Friday-Saturday 1-9 pm, and Sunday 1-7 pm.

Ready for a day trip? local mom Lacey Keigley and her family visited Flat Rock, North Carolina. In this review, she is sharing insight on what not to miss if you visit Flat Rock with your family! It’s smaller than an amusement park, but it’s loads more fun. Just over the mountain, a short drive north of Travelers Rest, it’s an easy, beautiful drive. It’s a perfect place to spend a day.

Looking for even more travel ideas? Check out our day trips page or our travel page!

A morning in Flat Rock

Opens at 7 am

Buy a scone, a muffin, or a danish and coffee or tea and dine on the back deck under the branches of a fabulous tree that grows up and around and right through the deck.

Park your car and breathe in the fresh air. Wander up the lovely trail that takes you up to the Nobel Prize-winning author’s last home. Take a tour of his home – it’s only $5 for adults and free for kids and it’s absolutely worth it to see a snapshot of his life, left as if he might be entering his old study at any moment.

If you’ve got energy and time on your side, take a hike that begins behind the home, near the adorable barn teeming with goats who are direct descendants of Sandburg’s wife’s prized goat herd. Little Glassy has a view completely worth the manageable trek. Very family-friendly. When you reach the giant rock and take a break, you can pull out one of your new books and read for a little bit on the mountain top.

Open 9 am – 5 pm daily.

Head right back to where you started for lunch. (And after your hike, you’ve earned your lunch.)

The Park at Flat Rock

Or, check out the super amazing playground at The Park at Flat Rock.

The Park at Flat Rock is free to visit and open dawn to dusk daily.

The Park at Flat Rock55 Highland Golf Drive, Flat Rock, NC828.435.0397

Afternoon in Flat Rock

For lunch, we chose a local BBQ hot spot. Friends, you just won’t find tastier BBQ in North Carolina. Sure, they have great fish tacos and delicious sides (try their deviled eggs and potato salad) but it’s their classic BBQ that draws the crowds. You pick pork or chicken and then you add your own sauce choice. (I lean to the vinegar variety, but you’ve got options and none of them are bad.)

Open at 11 am daily. Closed on Sundays.

(If your kids just aren’t into BBQ, you can order a pizza from Flat Rock Village Bakery and let them have that. The seating is all outdoors and is combined in a convenient way with the bakery so it’s no problem to grab options from both restaurants.)

After eating and drinking and feeling satisfied, step upstairs to The Wrinkled Egg – an endearing shop filled with quirky souvenirs, home decor, eclectic design, local art, and even a pet rabbit who loves to be petted, along with a few beautiful songbirds. Kids and grown-ups will quickly call this store their favorite.

Open 10 am – 5:30 pm most days.

If you happen to be visiting Flat Rock in late summer or fall you will want to drive back in the direction you came for a millisecond and turn right and head up to SkyTop Orchard.

You can’t beat the views and the apple picking is convenient and feels perfectly autumnal. If you have room remaining, you can dessert on fresh apple cider donuts and cold apple slushes – or warm apple cider, depending upon the weather and your mood. Either way, you won’t be disappointed. The kids can have a hayride, visit the animals, wander through the bamboo forest, or romp on the playsets. And you get to take him the best reminder of your day out – fresh North Carolina hand-picked apples! Before you go, be sure to read our tips for apple picking with kids!

Open 9 am – 6 pm daily.

Evening in Flat Rock

If you still have time, money, and inclination, stay for dinner and eat at the Flat Rock Wood Room.

Open until 8 or 9 pm most nights, closed on Monday and Tuesday.

You can catch a movie at the neatest local theatre – Flat Rock Cinema – with shows every day at 4 pm and 7 pm. (Closed Mondays.) You can order popcorn, but they also serve BBQ and full menu options.

You can even take in a live theatre show at North Carolina’s State Theatre – Flat Rock Playhouse.

That’s a full day packed and overloaded with all the good things the fabulous little town of Flat Rock has to offer you.

It may be small in size, but it is full and wide in charm and activity.

What is your favorite thing to do when visiting Flat Rock, NC?

EAST FLAT ROCK - Drivers heading to East Henderson High School along Upward Road now see a huge milkshake cup with a name that may not be familiar to people in Western North Carolina: Dairi-O.

The fast-food chain originated in the city of King in the Central part of North Carolina and is now set to open its first location in the Western part of the state, according to Rusty LaRue, the chief operations officer for Dairi-O.

"This will be the farthest West that we'll have a restaurant. We just opened in Lenoir back in early November, but this one (in East Flat Rock) will be our most Western store once we get it completed," LaRue told the Times-News on Feb. 6.

The new location will be at the intersection of Upward Road and Old Upward Road, across the street from East Henderson High School, and construction is expected to be completed by mid to late summer, LaRue said.

"The location is a great one, and we're excited about being there," LaRue said. "We love to partner with the communities when we come in, and obviously, high schools are a big part of that. We've got the cup up there and we've started doing some grading, trying to start getting things going. We're just waiting for better weather to get going full go."

LaRue said the footprint for the East Flat Rock restaurant will be a lot like the new Lenoir location, with a double drive-thru.

If his name sounds familiar, it is. LaRue was a multi-sport athlete for Wake Forest University from 1992-96 and went on to play professional basketball for the next nine years. He earned an NBA championship with the Chicago Bulls in the 1997-98 season, playing alongside Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman.

"It was a former life," LaRue said. "But I enjoy what I'm doing now, getting the opportunity to do what I do."

The restaurant chain began in 1947 in King as a take-out burger joint, selling hot dogs and hamburgers. Since then, Dairi-O has added more to its menu, with healthier options like specialty salads, grilled chicken wraps and even veggie burgers, according to its website (https://dairio.com/).

Other menu items available are sandwiches (fish, chicken, BBQ, BLT and grilled cheese), chicken tenders, chicken entrees (chicken sandwich, chicken Souvlaki, chicken wrap and grilled chicken pita) and also homemade soups, including chicken and rice, tomato basil, bean and bacon and chili beans.

Dairi-O also has ice cream and milkshakes, along with other desserts like ice cream floats, sundaes, strawberry shortcake, hot fudge cake and its classic banana split.

In 2006, the first sit-down Dairi-O was built in Rural Hall and it was torn down in 2021 and replaced with the new location in Stanleyville. There are currently 10 locations, and they are all in the Central part of North Carolina. They are King, Winston-Salem, Kernersville, Asheboro, Thomasville, Lenoir, Archdale, Mooresville, Clemmons and Stanleyville.

If you haven’t heard of the New Namaste Center for Spirituality, Healing and the Arts in Henderson County, chances are you will soon.

The center’s leaders want to build a new home in Flat Rock and are reaching out to the community through a variety of fundraising events over the next few months to make their dream a reality.

“I know it’s going to happen. I really place this in God’s hands and know it’s under control,” said the Rev. Charlotte McGinnis, the center’s founder and spiritual leader.

The center is an interfaith, nondenominational ministry with about 60 to 80 members who come from around Western North Carolina to attend services and classes.

It began in 2006 when McGinnis began teaching spiritual classes and Sunday services on property near the Highland Lake Inn. She eventually moved the center to the Flat Rock Cinema for a time and later to a building on King Street in Hendersonville.

When the building they were renting on King Street became unavailable, McGinnis said the center’s members decided to buy land and build a new center.

“Our members felt we should have our own space and not rent,” she said.

The members are trying to raise at least $1 million to buy three acres of land near the Highland Lake Inn and build the new center.

Once it’s built, the center will overlook Flat Rock’s park on Highland Lake Road and will include a 250-seat sanctuary, a kitchen, a fellowship hall, healing rooms, offices and classrooms.

In the meantime, the center holds Sunday services in the Kudzu Cottage at Highland Lake Inn and classes at Lila’s Garden in Hendersonville.

Namaste recently held a “Simply Love” concert that featured local musicians to benefit its building project.

Other concerts at the Highland Lake Cove Amphitheater on Aug. 14, Sept. 11 and Oct. 16 will also be held to benefit the project.

The Aug. 14 drumming concert with Ed and Friends will begin at 7 p.m. and feature professional Djembe drummer and Indian flute player Ed Carrasquillo. The concert on Sept. 11 also begins at 7 p.m. and is described as Beatle Mania with surprise musicians. On Oct. 16, the center will host a talent show at 7 p.m. called Flat Rock Idol.

Namaste members also plan to hold an art show and auction on Aug. 29 at the Grand Old Hall at Highland Lake from 2 to 6 p.m. to raise money for their new building.

Kelley Smith, the co-director of fundraising at Namaste, said the center is also using social media to appeal to donors who might hear about the center through the Internet.

“It is amazing how many people will come through and donate to things like that,” she said. “Some people have a heart for that.”

McGinnis said she believes Namaste attracts many of its members because it offers a safe place for people to explore their spirituality without others making judgments.

“There is not anything like us around,” she said.

McGinnis became an ordained minister in the Alliance of Divine Love Ministry in 1994 and is now its president. She also teaches ADL ministerial classes and has ordained other ministers.

She is also a personal development counselor, an expert on holistic health and wellness, and cofounder of the Art of Living Well Radio Network on Blog Talk Radio. McGinnis also hosts a radio show on Hendersonville’s WTZQ radio on Saturday mornings.

While Namaste is only in the early stages of raising money to build a new center, McGinnis said she is confident members will reach their goal.

Part of her confidence comes from the dedication of the center’s members, whom she described as “all in” on the project.

“I’ve never met a more heart-centered group of people in all my years,” she said.

The willingness of others to support Namaste also gives McGinnis confidence.

“We’ve had some generous people step up and contribute,” she said. “It’s gonna happen. It’s very exciting.”

For more information about Namaste or to contribute to its building project, visit www.thenamastecenter.com. visit www.thenamastecenter.com.