Beautiful Small Town In USA

Beautiful Small Town In USA

Vernal
Jurassic park meets the Wild West. The land around vernal is rich with fossils from the period which began about 200 million years ago and has become the most popular prehistoric period in contemporary imagination. The Carnegie Quarry contains some 1500 actual dinosaur bones embedded in the rock. The towering pink dinosaur that greets you on arrival indicates the town’s main industry. They even discovered remains of a previously unknown species of dinosaur here in 2010. There are also significant thousand-year-old petroglyphs from indigenous people as well as examples of nineteenth century homesteads. The rugged terrain around town is scenic in the extreme with three state parks with exceptional white water rafting.

Homer, Alaska 
What dinos are to Vernal, the Northern Lights Are to Homer. Once referred to as “As far as you can go without a passport”, Homer lies just below the 60th parallel, sometimes shorthand for the beginning of the real Arctic. Fall is the peak season for the Aurora Borealis but there are also a few more things to do in Homer when the Lights go out. Art galleries. The Homer Spit is not a contest but a narrow strip of land jutting into Kachemak Bay with tourist diversions. It is serious halibut fishing and a spectacular state park with glaciers, trails and kayaking which the Travel Alaska website suggests “to escape the bustle of Homer” to the extent a remote town of 5,000 can bustle.

Stowe, Vermont 
Stowe is a downhill skiing superpower but it has diversified into an interesting year round destination. Near the Canadian border the nearest big city is Montreal. Among its oft-mentioned claims to fame is a resort run by the Von Trapp family of Sound of Music Fame celebrating its 50th anniversary as winner of the Oscar for Best Picture. It is also just 10 miles from the ice cream sacred site of the original Ben and Jerry’s, complete with the graveyard for old flavors. There is an active arts scene in Stowe and some serious chefs have serious kitchens. Pretty much a ‘something for everyone’ kind of place in a small, picturesque alpine package.

Custer, South Dakota 
For the scent and sound of the old west, head to Custer for the annual Buffalo Round Up at Custer State Park, which really is a home where the buffalo roam. They are transitioned to winter grazing land each fall and would-be cowpokes can help, or go to the Arts Festival chili cook-off, or for those born to be wild, the 75th annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. But beyond anniversary activities Custer is blessed with superb nearby attractions, maybe some of the greatest in the country. Mount Rushmore, Badlands National Park, Black Hills National Park and the iconic Devil’s Tower National Monument (think Close Encounters of the Third Kind.) The town dates back to 1874 and has buildings from the 1880’s but still has only about 2,000 inhabitants. And yes of course it was named after Lt. General George Armstrong Custer.

Thibodaux, Louisiana
2015 brought two somber anniversaries for the Pelican State. A decade since Hurricane Katrina and five years on from the Deepwater Horizon explosion and spill, from which the fishery in nearby Thibodaux has yet to recover fully. Over a thousand displaced people from New Orleans rode it out in Thibodaux. Nevertheless, the town remains a center of Cajun history and culture. Laurel Valley village shows what’s left of the 19th century sugar plantation. There are bayou tours and the Acadian Cultural Center to take in the region’s colorful past and present. Donner-Peltier Distillers is a craft distiller that makes a series of rums named after Rougaroux, the legendary Cajun werewolf said to be stoppable only by a stack of 13 pennies because his 12 fingers can’t cope with that many. Hence the Rougaroux 13 Pennies Praline rum for your onsite tasting pleasure.