The Hood River Valley appeals on a couple of different levels.

It’s gorgeous. You come cruising down off the back side of Mount Hood, across glacier-fed rivers and through dense Cascades-north forests, and wind up in this bucolic flatland paradise with fruit trees in soul-satisfying rows, rustic hole-in-the-wall knickknack shops ripe for exploration and this hulking, snow-clad mountain looming up over your shoulder.

It’s fertile. Some 15,000 acres in the valley are planted with pears, apples and to a lesser extent cherries and grapes, grown by 350 commercial farms. While these farms produce more than 200,000 tons of fruit each year, the place feels more ma and pa than corporate, more roadside stand than Dole or Del Monte.

They cater to the people willing to make the Hood River Valley a tourist destination, motoring in from Portland and Bend and Vancouver and Walla Walla. One farm, Mountain View Orchards, gives visitors a pound of apples for every 10 miles driven (you come in from Bend and you leave with a 15-pound sack). They all greet guests with a smile and bin after bin of pears – Bartlett, Anjou, Comice and Bosc – and apples – Fuji, Red Delicious, Jonagold, Gravenstein and more.

It makes for an outing to remember.

The Fruit Loop is a serial tour of 28 orchards, farm stands, country stores and wineries, all in this picturesque valley between Mount Hood and the Columbia River.

It’s all about the fruit and then again it’s not. We stumbled across buckle-busting apple pies at Apple Valley Country Store, an award-winning Pinot Gris at Pheasant Valley Winery and alfalfa honey and fresh apple cider at Mountain View Orchards Fruit Stand. We also sampled some killer sweet-onion mustard, caramel-apple spread, cinnamon apple sauce and steak fajitas while looping the loop.

It’s difficult to get by all the stops in a single day; we didn’t even try. Instead we explored some and lingered at the places that felt especially right.

Ruthie and Lyle McAlexander have been tending their apple and pear trees in the valley for more than 30 years. This time of year, though, with much of the tending done, Lyle and Ruthie go into host mode. It’s like they’re having hundreds of their closest friends over for one big, season-long open house. Most visitors are strangers, but not for long.

When we arrived, the McAlexanders were gnoshing on sausages and (apple) strudel at the picnic table in the yard. All around them, their new friends carted wagons of produce from crate to crate, sampling the wares and tossing fruit in bags.

I chatted with the McAlexanders and signed on for their mailing list, then Lyle was up and gathering kids together for a hay ride. It’s about as far from an agribusiness picnic as you can get.

For the farmers on the loop, this is a time for reaping the benefits of a long growing season, to slow down and enjoy what nature (and an organized marketing campaign) have wrought. While retail, farm-stand sales account for a small portion of most farmers’ bottom lines, it’s an enjoyable part.

Lyle McAlexander, for instance, said his two months of fall retail sales account for about an eight of his total yearly sales.

”We ship a lot of fruit,” he said. ”(But) a lot of people derive joy out of visiting our orchards, picking the fruit and eating an apple or a pear the way it’s supposed to taste. Our views, the greens, the mountains, the fall colors. It’s a real thrilling outdoor adventure. … Some people hang out for three or four hours.”

Better strike now, though. After this weekend, the McAlexanders will close up shop for the winter and other stands on the loop will scale down their hours.