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Check in to the aptly named Pleasant Street Inn, a four-unit Victorian with forest-green shingle siding set just three blocks from the downtown action. Start the museum tour at Sharlot Hall Museum, a general historical museum and collection of restored log cabins that trace the history of Prescott’s territorial capital days. Keep an eye open for the governor’s restored log cabin “mansion.” After that, duck into the Smoki Museum, which is built like a Native American pueblo. This place showcases Southwestern Native American history from the prehistoric through to the present. Now make your way to the Phippen Museum cowboy and Western art museum, 7 miles north of town. Named after the late George Phippen – a local self-taught artist who helped put Western art on the map – it’s worth a visit to see that the range of Western art is broader than oil paintings of weather-beaten faces under broad hat brims.

Brain full and belly empty, dress up a bit and strut like a brightly plumed bird into the Peacock Room & Bar. Dinner is a touch fancy, but the classic American fare – like slow-roasted prime rib and crab-stuffed salmon – is great. Now you can visit Whiskey Row on a full stomach. In a perfect world, after you pushed open the swinging doors at Palace Saloon and sauntered in, the whole place would get quiet and the music would stop. In reality, someone will politely ask if you want a table or to sit at the bar. Don’t let that take away from the old West pedigree of the place; the Earp brothers used to knock ’em back with Doc Holliday at the huge Brunswick bar.

After your night in the saloon, prepare yourself for a completely different world in the short space of 35 more miles on Hwy 89A. Jerome, a city with twisting streets that are confusing but make for a fun drive, is an old mining town built into the side of Cleopatra Hill. If Prescott felt small, this place will feel minuscule, but there’s a decidedly Bohemian vibe and there seem to be more art spaces than people. Aging hippies run many of the hotels and restaurants – they saved Jerome from decrepitude when Altamont ended an era and they dispersed in search of affordable charm.

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DETOUR

Williams, 60 miles south of Grand Canyon Village and 35 miles west of Flagstaff on I-40, is a splendid place to base a Grand Canyon South Rim adventure. Plenty of classic Route 66 motels are here, and the old-school homes and train station charm the socks off of visitors. Best of all, visitors can ride the vintage train of the Grand Canyon Railway (www.thetrain.com) to the South Rim in comfort and style.

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Jerome was a den of sin back when the United Verde Mine was booming in the late 1880s. Drunken miners with pockets full of money stumbled into town, and there were plenty of working girls hoping to make a quick buck of their own. The Mile High Inn was the main stage in this drama back when it was a bordello, but now it’s a charming seven-room B&B with a downstairs restaurant.

Chat up some burly but friendly-enough bikers (of both sexes) at the nearby Spirit Room Bar. It’s the main attraction in town; groups of Europeans fresh off their BMW motorcycles politely debate the merits of American beer with weekend hog (Harley) riders inside. Sup at Grapes, which feels like an upscale diner with good steaks and lots of yummy wine, and call it a night. Or return to the Spirit Room for a nightcap or two, and maybe make some new friends – an open, friendly attitude goes real far.

The next morning, be sure to visit the Jerome Artists Cooperative Gallery before leaving town. Around 30 local artists sell their wares here, and it’s a pleasure to wander the place and talk with these creative locals about their adopted home.

Continue northeast on Hwy 89A – trust the signs, not your sense of direction or you’ll be going the wrong way down the short stretch of one-way road in the center of Jerome. Two miles outside the town stop at Jerome State Historic Park. Recently updated exhibits inside the 1916 mansion of mining mogul Jimmy ‘Rawhide