The mountain town of Hendersonville has places to hike, art galleries, wineries, and more.

But did you know they also have lots of ice cream shops?

Come along with Kirby Gibson as she joins her friends along the Hendersonville Ice Cream Trail.

[lively music] - My name is Kirby Gibson, ice cream aficionado.

I mean, who doesn't love ice cream?

Chocolate, strawberry, vanilla, these are the basics we grew up with.

But now there's a whole world of fantastic flavors out there, and today I'm on a mission to experience the best of what one mountain town has to offer.

Yes!

Welcome, my friends, to the Hendersonville Ice Cream Trail.

There are more than a dozen delectable destinations sprinkled throughout this beautiful locale, and I'm meeting up with some super sweet people to experience as much as I can while avoiding the dreaded brain freeze.

Let's go.

[cheerful music] The Hendersonville Ice Cream Trail features 13 shops to satisfy that sweet tooth.

I'm heading out with my friends Zoe and Eli to wander our way through ice cream heaven.

We're scooping up four stops on the trail today: McConnell Farms, Celtic Creamery, the Baker's Box, and our first culinary adventure at Karolina Kremes.

- Karolina Kremes is a small ice cream shop in Etowah, North Carolina.

It's also that's in Henderson County.

So most people come here because of our shakes.

Things like the Peanut Butter Monkey Shake and the Karolina Shake.

Our Hot Fudge Brownie Sundae is also very popular.

Typically we're open from March to October-ish, 11 to 7, Wednesday through Saturday.

I guess one of the unique things that we have is a little play area for the kids so they can do hopscotch and they've got various little activities over there, drawing on the floor that they can do.

- I got the Redheaded Monkey Shake.

It's peanut butter and chocolate and it's got a cherry on top for the redhead.

It's delicious.

[giggles] - Nice.

And what do you like about this place?

- I really like the atmosphere, it's so cute.

I think that the chalk and the hopscotch is all really cute.

I can see like, just like kids playing around here and lots of tables so everybody can be here and, like, have a space, and I just think the vibe is so happy.

- [Kirby] Yeah.

- I got the Unicorn Shake, and it tastes like, sort of like cereal milk, like it's like, like that classic, like, Froot Loops in your bowl flavor.

- [Kirby] What?

- [Eli] Love it.

Yeah.

- [Kirby] That's awesome.

- [Eli] And it's pink, which is super cute, right?

- It is super cute.

[Zoe giggling] All right, you guys ready to head to the next spot?

- Oh yeah.

- Nice.

[cheerful music] [people chuckling] [lively music] Our next stop might turn you green with envy as we get to experience the flavors of the Emerald Isle come stateside.

This is Celtic Creamery.

- We have an Irish ice cream brand that's very unique, so it's very rich and we make every single thing in-house.

So we churn our own ice cream, we make our own hot fudge, we make our own whipped cream, we make doughnuts to order, mini doughnuts that can have powdered sugar or cinnamon and sugar.

Our biggest thing is we make everything in-house.

- The title of this, I'm gonna try it.

Ready?

Scrumbumptious Strawberry.

And it is without a doubt very scrumbumptious.

[group laughing] - As soon as you walk in you can smell the fresh doughnuts, and that just, it tells you exactly what kind of experience you're gonna have.

It's gonna be warm, it's gonna be delicious.

- I would say that the Ballybunion Brownie is probably one of our biggest sellers.

The Celtic Special, which is four hot mini doughnuts made with two scoops of your choice of ice cream, hot fudge on top with two scoops of whipped cream and some chocolate flakes on top.

And people seem to love that one 'cause it's very unique to have hot mini doughnuts in a ice cream store as well.

Handmade, lots of love in it, and you'll taste the difference when you come in.

[lively music] - This was fantastic, but I think we still have to go to a couple more places.

You guys ready?

- Yeah.

- So ready.

[cheerful music] - Next up, our tour continues as we make our way to one of the only apple farms in the area that stays open year round, McConnell Farms.

Yes, they have amazing apples, but they also have incredible ice cream.

[cheerful music] - Welcome to McConnell Farms.

I'm Danny McConnell, one of the family members here at the Farms.

My family's been here since around 1940, and we started making ice cream on the farm about 25 years ago.

We started out making one flavor of ice cream, which was strawberry.

And so now that we're up to after about 25 years, we keep about 15 flavors of ice cream all year round.

Our ice cream is very unique 'cause we have a very high butter fat ice cream, as well as we use as many fruits and vegetables from the farm as we can.

Strawberry, Lemon Diane, Charleston Praline, our Blackberry Chip, Blueberry Crumble, those are probably our six, seven biggest ones right now.

- Oh my gosh.

It's so good, it tastes like eating a piece of pie.

- So you seem to like the Strawberry a lot.

[giggles] - Yes, I'm a big strawberry fan, and what I like about this is it's almost like a gelato.

- Yeah.

- It's really, really nice.

It's super fresh.

It's like I feel like I'm just eating strawberries right off the farm, you know.

- We have tasting plates that we do four, five flavors at a time, and you can come out and pick your favorite, what you think will be your favorite flavors.

You can get a sampling plate, it's good for sharing.

So come on out and see us.

- This place is amazing, but I think we need to make our way to the next stop on our ice cream tour.

Are you guys ready?

- Yeah.

- Ready.

- All right.

[cheerful music] [lighthearted music] We're wrapping up our tour at our fourth and final stop, The Baker's Box.

This place is basically what happens when you get two chefs together to build their dream restaurant, complete with ice cream and a whole lot of Lego.

- We are a family-owned restaurant and bakery.

We have an eclectic menu with burgers, sandwiches.

We make our own desserts and ice cream.

The ice cream, it's custard base.

It's very rich, very smooth, nice and creamy.

And we have about six different flavors at any given time and some of 'em are kind of unique.

- I didn't think I was gonna be a fan of this boozy milkshake, but it is perfect.

You know, sometimes alcohol can be really overpowering, but this is the perfect balance.

You can taste it, but it's like comforting, it's warming.

- I love how thick the ice cream is.

It's so custardy.

I have the peanut butter cup one right now, and sometimes when you have a peanut butter cup ice cream it's like not enough peanut butter cup and you're like, hmm.

This one's full, and it's so delicious.

- Yes.

Also, what better place to enjoy ice cream than in a place where you are surrounded by your literal childhood?

I mean, there are Lego sculptures all over.

There is a train above our heads.

- [Eli] I loved walking in and I was totally surprised by everything that was happening in here.

- Well, we're very much into Star Wars and Harry Potter, and there's a lot of Legos in here and just, it's just a part of us.

It's just fun and casual.

We love our ice cream.

We just love what we do and we do it ourselves.

- All across North Carolina you'll be able to find amazing ice cream from the mountains to the coast, but I'm not sure you'll be able to find anything that measures up to the Hendersonville Ice Cream Trail.

This destination is the cherry on top of our state's ice cream sundae.

So come on down and bring your appetite.

[lighthearted music] - The Hendersonville Ice Cream Trail dots the Blue Ridge Mountains throughout Henderson County.

To find a map with all the locations and their hours, head to Visithendersonvillenc.org.