12 Nicest Small Mountain Towns In America
In most mountain towns, there’s less to do and fewer people around once the warm season ends. In these twelve, winter is the reason to go. The air is at its coldest, the crowds are gone, and there’s still plenty within walking distance: the hot springs in Ouray, a frozen Mirror Lake and a toboggan chute in Lake Placid, ski lifts a free shuttle from the village in Stowe and Mammoth Lakes. All twelve sit near a different range, from the San Juans to the Adirondacks to the Alaska Range. Here's what makes them all worth the drive.
Ouray, Colorado
In summer, hikers pick up the 5.9-mile Perimeter Trail at the visitor center on Main Street and loop above town past Cascade Falls. Box Cañon Falls Park is close enough to walk to, with a level 500-foot path into the canyon and a steeper half-mile round trip up to the High Bridge for anyone with sturdier knees.
Box Cañon closes in November. By winter, water piped along the rim of the Ouray Ice Park, next door in the Uncompahgre Gorge, has frozen into more than 150 named climbs, free for climbers with their own gear. Each January they gather for the Ouray Ice Festival, with clinics on the ice and films downtown at night. The Ouray Hot Springs Pool, beside the visitor center, is the warm place to end a cold day, and no reservation is needed for the $30 adult day pass. Water in the Overlook Pool is kept between 102 and 106 degrees, and grown-ups have a section of their own with the San Juan peaks on every side.
Stowe, Vermont
Walkers and cyclists use the Stowe Recreation Path in summer, and cross-country skiers and snowshoers take over once the snow comes. The paved path covers 5.3 miles, starting at Lintilhac Park behind Stowe Community Church on Main Street and ending at Topnotch Resort on the Mountain Road. The Vermont Ski and Snowboard Museum is a short walk down Main Street from the church. A free winter shuttle runs up the Mountain Road between the village and the lifts at Stowe Mountain Resort. In summer and early fall, the resort's Gondola SkyRide climbs Mount Mansfield, Vermont's highest peak, to the Cliff House Restaurant near the top. Past the resort, Route 108 becomes a pass through Smugglers' Notch so tight that single vehicles longer than 40 feet are banned, with fines starting at $10,000. Cliffs nearly 1,000 feet high line the Notch, and a trail leads up to Sterling Pond.
Talkeetna, Alaska
Talkeetna's Main Street runs about two blocks, past Nagley's Store, the Fairview Inn, the Talkeetna Roadhouse and Denali Brewing Co., and then stops at Riverfront Park, where three rivers meet. On clear summer evenings the sky turns orange behind Denali and Mount Foraker. On the first Saturday of Winterfest in December, Wilderness Woman competitors haul full five-gallon water buckets along that same street and snowshoe a course, and money from the Bachelor Auction afterward goes to women and children in need.
Rangers at the Walter Harper Talkeetna Ranger Station on B Street run Denali's climbing operations, and in summer they open the station daily for programs and keep a bookstore for anyone curious about the climbers. K2 Aviation's Denali Flyer covers the 45-mile Kahiltna Glacier for $410. The Alaska Railroad's Denali Star stops in this town of about 1,000 every day in summer, so a visitor can make the 115-mile trip north from Anchorage by train.
Taos, New Mexico
North Central Regional Transit's Route 341 bus to Taos Ski Valley is free and makes seven round trips Wednesday through Sunday in winter, once the ski valley has opened in late November. Summer hikers park near the Kachina chairlift and follow the Williams Lake Trail two miles to an alpine lake below Wheeler Peak, the highest point in New Mexico. The area closes for about a week most Augusts for traditional community use. Ten miles northwest of town, the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge has sidewalks about 600 feet above the river. Around the Plaza, at 6,967 feet, the town's galleries and restaurants fill about five walkable blocks, and Michael's Kitchen on Paseo del Pueblo Norte has been open for breakfast since 1974.
Whitefish, Montana
During the Penguin Plunge at Whitefish Winter Carnival in early February, people jump into Whitefish Lake at City Beach to raise money for Special Olympics Montana, and the Grand Parade goes down Central Avenue on Saturday afternoon.
Amtrak stops twice a day at the downtown depot, and City Beach, the same stretch of shore the plungers jump from, is about a mile west. The free SNOW Bus leaves the depot for Whitefish Mountain Resort, eight miles up, in both winter and summer, and the 47-mile Whitefish Trail has 15 trailheads in the forest around town. From the top of the resort's scenic lift ride, Whitefish Lake and the peaks of Glacier National Park are in view, and the park's west entrance is about 25 miles east on U.S. 2.
Leavenworth, Washington
Waterfront Park is a few blocks from the Bavarian-style storefronts of Front Street, and a footbridge leads out to Blackbird Island in the Wenatchee River. People float and tube this stretch of the river in summer, and families spread out on Hot Sands Beach between dips.
On Front Street, the Nutcracker Museum has more than 9,000 nutcrackers, which is a lot of jaws for one building. Outside, city code requires commercial signs to fit the "Old World Bavarian Alpine theme." Oktoberfest spans three October weekends, and the free Christmastown lights are lit every day between Thanksgiving and the end of February. For a longer walk, the nearly flat 4.2-mile Icicle Gorge Loop follows the creek about 15 miles up Icicle Road.
Joseph, Oregon
A ride on the Wallowa Lake Tramway climbs about 3,700 feet in 15 minutes to the Summit Grill on Mount Howard, at 8,150 feet, and the tram runs mid-May through September for $50 per adult. The Royal Purple Overlook is steps from the top, and a stroll of just under three-quarters of a mile ends at the Wallowa Valley Overlook, with the valley and the town spread out below. Wallowa Lake begins about a mile south of Joseph, and the state park at its far end has a beach and seasonal marina rentals. Main Street in Joseph, home to about 1,150 people, is lined with larger-than-life bronze sculptures, and foundry tours at Valley Bronze start at 11 a.m. Monday through Thursday. Thousands of spectators crowd Main Street for the Chief Joseph Days parade in late July.
Lake Placid, New York
The paved 2.7-mile walk around Mirror Lake passes the shops on Main Street, Mid's Park, the public beach and the toboggan chute. Plaques along Mirror Lake Drive list the Adirondack High Peaks, and benches face the mountains. Near the north end of Main Street, the Brewster Peninsula Nature Trails cover about two miles of easy woods walking. Cobble Hill's trailhead on Mirror Lake Drive has no parking, and hikers walk over from the village for a 1.6-mile round trip to a view of the rooftops and the High Peaks.
The Whiteface Veterans' Memorial Highway, open in the warmer months, gains more than 2,300 feet in five miles below the 4,867-foot summit, which has a stone castle and an elevator through the mountain. Once Mirror Lake freezes, dog sled rides cross it and the hockey ice off the beach is free. Adults pay $20 by card for a session of unlimited runs on the 30-foot Lake Placid Toboggan Chute near the post office, and riders slide up to 1,000 feet across the ice.
Fayetteville, West Virginia
On the third Saturday of every October, U.S. 19 closes and people walk across the New River Gorge Bridge just north of Fayetteville for Bridge Day. BASE jumpers leap from the deck 876 feet above the river, and rappellers drop down beside them. Admission is free, and there's a chili cook-off downtown in the afternoon.
Bridge Walk guides clip visitors onto a 24-inch catwalk under the deck all year, 851 feet above the New River, for a walk of a little over two hours. At the Canyon Rim Visitor Center, just north of town, a boardwalk leads down to two observation decks, and Fayette Station Road, an eight-mile one-way drive, passes under the bridge three times.
Trailheads are at the back of Fayetteville Town Park, where the 1.1-mile Park Loop connects with the Fayetteville Trail and on to Long Point, a rock outcrop facing the gorge and the bridge. Rafting trips on the Lower New run through the summer on Class III and III+ rapids, and the Gauley has bigger whitewater for seven weekends each fall. Pies & Pints on West Maple Avenue and Cathedral Café on South Court Street are both downtown, for the end of a day on the river or the rim.
Mammoth Lakes, California
Ski season in Mammoth Lakes is long, with Mammoth Mountain scheduled to open in mid-November and stay open through the end of May. Through mid-April, the free Village Gondola connects The Village, the town's cluster of shops and restaurants, with Canyon Lodge.
After the snow melts, the free Lakes Basin Trolley leaves The Village every 30 minutes for Lake Mary and Horseshoe Lake, with a bike rack that holds 14. Cyclists who would sooner pedal the whole way take the paved Lakes Basin Path, which covers the same ground in 5.2 miles and about 1,000 feet of climbing. The Panorama Gondola rides to the 11,053-foot summit of Mammoth Mountain and the Eleven53 Interpretive Center and Café. Devils Postpile National Monument is a fee shuttle ride away in summer, roughly mid-to-late June through Labor Day.
Blowing Rock, North Carolina
Moses H. Cone Memorial Park, at Milepost 294 of the Blue Ridge Parkway on the edge of Blowing Rock, has 25 miles of carriage trails. About half a mile south of downtown, the easiest of them circles Bass Lake in a 0.9-mile gravel loop that works for wheelchairs and strollers. Flat Top Manor, up the hill, has a Southern Highland Craft Guild shop open from April into late fall.
Classic Southern cooking has been on the menu at the Speckled Trout on Main Street since 1986. Artists set up for Art in the Park on Park Avenue on six Saturdays between May and October. The Blowing Rock itself, about two miles from Main Street, is where updrafts can toss light objects back over the cliff edge, which is why Ripley's called it the only place in the world where snow falls upside down.
Eureka Springs, Arkansas
Spring Street winds for about a mile through downtown Eureka Springs without a traffic light or a four-way stop, and five natural springs along it are now small pocket parks, with Basin Park at the Main Street end. The streets are steep enough that a $6 all-day trolley pass, good on four routes, is a kindness to the calves. Up the hill, St. Elizabeth's Catholic Church on Crescent Drive is entered through its bell tower, and ghost tours of the Crescent Hotel start every half hour from 7 p.m. The Magnolia Trail back down to Spring Street is about a seven-minute walk, and the Festival of the Arts lasts the whole month of May.
Lake Leatherwood City Park covers 1,610 acres around an 85-acre spring-fed lake, with boat rentals and more than 25 miles of trails. Thorncrown Chapel, the glass-walled chapel in the woods a mile and a half west on Highway 62, is open March through December.
Late fall is when most of these towns switch over to winter. Skiing starts at Mammoth Mountain in mid-November and at Taos Ski Valley about two weeks later, and Stowe's free shuttle begins its loop up the Mountain Road around Thanksgiving. Leavenworth's Christmastown lights go on along Front Street that same week and stay lit through February. In Ouray, Box Cañon has closed for the year, and the climbers are waiting on the water piped along the gorge to freeze. Lake Placid's toboggan chute reopens once Mirror Lake ices over. On the first Saturday of December, Talkeetna's Wilderness Woman competitors carry full water buckets down Main Street, two blocks from the spot where three rivers meet.
