Our most picturesque towns - Best of the West - Cover Story

Sunset, Feb, 1993 by Jena MacPherson

From Bavarian village to Southwest pueblo, from copper-mining town to a slice of Scandinavia--here are the West's most picturesque towns.

Thousands of readers helped us choose these towns, along with other favorite Western travel destinations, recipes, building projects, and gardening ideas. They're all part of a new 148-page publication, Sunset's Best of the West--a celebration of and guide to the best the West has to offer. It will be available by mail and on newsstands in early spring. We're pleased to share this 19-page preview with you.

New England comes to the Northern California coast

Ah, there she is now, mystery writer Jessica Fletcher wheeling through the Maine village of Cabot Cove like a modern Miss Marple in "Murder, She Wrote." Only the village on the tube isn't in Maine. It isn't even on the eastern seaboard. This "New England" village is across the continent on a sometimes foggy, sometimes windswept nub of spectacular coast 3 hours north of San Francisco.

Mendocino's rambling, blufftop streets lined with simple, white woodframe buildings reflect the New England origins of most of its early settlers, who came to log and mill the area's coastal redwoods. The town's most famous building, the 1871 Masonic Lodge on the corner of Lansing and Ukiah streets, could have been transplanted directly from Cape Cod, with its gable roof, shiplap siding, and square-based cupola (though a singular sculpture of Father Time and a young maiden at the top may give one pause).

While the economic mainstay of the village has turned from timber to tourism, Mendocino has managed to avoid the overt commercialism that has "Carmel-ized" other small Western towns. The shops, art galleries, and restaurants that have infiltrated many of the town's original homes and buildings have carefully preserved the scale and look of the old part of town that locals call the village.

A visitor's first stop should be the Ford House. Originally the home of Jerome Ford, one of the town's first timber barons, it's now the interpretive center for Mendocino Headlands State Park. After wandering through historical exhibits in the downstairs rooms, pick up a guide to the town and a map showing walks along the headlands' clifftops--a great place for watching gray whales from December into April. (Ask about free guided walks and programs offered most weekends.)

Shoppers shouldn't miss the collection of handmade furniture and sculpted wood at Highlight Gallery on Main Street or, around the corner on Kasten, the rather esoteric offerings of Gallery Fair and neighboring Eclectic. Wind and Weather, tucked into a refurbished water tower on Albion Street, has everything meteorological, from ship barometers to whimsical weather vanes. Just up the street at Papa Birds, look at the latest in avian feeders and lodging to the soothing coos of new-age music.

For great views with your morning coffee, stop in at the Bay View Cafe, on Main. For lunch, grab a sandwich at Tote Fete, on Lansing Street (try the chicken salad on fresh-baked focaccia), and walk out on the headlands for a picnic. Cafe Beaujolais, on Ukiah, is a splurge, but offers some of the finest dining in the region. Chocolate Moosse Cafe, on Albion, is a more casual alternative.

The town's newest, plushest, and most expensive hostelry is Reed Manor, with five palatial rooms ranging from $175 to $350 a night. For a taste of history, the refurbished Mendocino Hotel offers doubles with bath starting at $85. One of our favorite bed-and-breakfasts is the Agate Cove Inn, which has cottages ranging from $79 to $175 and offers a full breakfast served in a dining room with a stunning coastal view.

The Mendocino Coast Chamber of Commerce, (707} 961-6300, lists dozens of inns, lodges, and B & B accommodations in the immediate area.

One of Montana's last best places

Swing east off U.S. Highway 93, and do the Electric Avenue shuffle down Bigfork's main street--past old-fashioned streetlamps, petunia pots, and two-story wooden buildings fringed with larch. Summers, the chatter of tourists and rehearsing actors fills the air; winters, the sound of wind-slapped water in Flathead Lake's Bigfork Bay dominates.

The first things you'll notice are art galleries--11 in a town of 1,000 people. "Art breeds art," explains Elna Darrow, co-owner of the oldest, Kootenai Galleries (573 Electric), where a bronze mountain lion sculpture snarls at snow-swept mountainscapes. You can watch sculptors carve elk or buffalo at Bjorge's Old Standard Gallery (603) and River Street Gallery (423). Art Fusion (471) features more untra-ditional work--clay fish candleholders called carpolabra, and cowhide plates and mugs--created by some of the area's hundreds of artists.

Heart and soul of summertime, the Bigfork Summer Playhouse (526) has regaled packed houses since 1960 with musicals such as Fiddler on the Roof and The Pajama Game. In winter, the theater hosts traveling shows.

For a postshow repast, step next door to Showthyme], in a 1908 bank building, for Chef Blu Funk's angel hair pasta and escargot or veal forestier with wild mushrooms and a brandy cream sauce. Or head down the street to Bridge Street Gallery (408) to feast on Thai Chicken or a vegetarian crepe brunch amid jewel-toned Moroccan rugs and antique Chinese embroidery. Pick up The Last Best Place, an anthology of Montana writers, or play "Summertime" on the piano in Electric Avenue Books (490). Try a different sort of jam at Eva Gates Homemade Preserves (456), where pints of huckleberry have been an area favorite since 1949.