Help from the East Coast

[razorguy]

So I'm in the very early stages of planning a trip out West with my wife. We're from West Virginia so while I can look online for days, I'm still not sure where to even begin as far as finding somewhere to backpack without being swarmed by people.

That being said, can you all recommend a place or two or three for me to look into to spend a week? My worries with the national parks, or the more popular ones at least, are that they will just be packed and not enjoyable but at the same time, they're popular for a reason, right?

Just trying to get a foot in the door and research a few different areas. We'd be flying in so I'm not dead set on one place or another so I'm completely open to all suggestions. It would ideally be a mix of nights in the woods or campground and nights in a hotel to shower and such. Only criteria would probably be mountains. West Virginia is the "mountain state" but they're generally more like rolling hills so I'd really like to see some snow capped peaks along the journey.

I really appreciate any help you can give me to get me pointed in the right direction. I figure the best resource is someone who has actually been there!

[OutandBack]

I'd take a good look at the Colorado Trail. I'd start at seg 5(the Wilderness area) and go west until you are ready to go home.

[KBr00ks]

Interested to see the replies... I grew up in WV and in my experience (mostly mountain biking), it's tough to get that "out there," alone-in-the-forest feeling anywhere out west these days. Still, there's got to be some less popular, but still plenty scenic, spots.

If you can find cheap flights, maybe Alaska?

[TrailSlug]

Check out Schill Brothers Outdoors youTube channel. They just completed a few sections of the Colorado trail and really liked it. It appears to be a very quite trail.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsXnCh9dHuU

[DownYonder]

https://www.summitpost.org/colorado-...lassics/182152

Play around with summitpost. Great info on mountains, peaks, trails all over the world.

[OutandBack]

If you two prefer western desert vs western mtns checkout Kokopelli in fruita CO. This trail goes all the way to Moab UT.




Don't make the big mistake most easterners make on their first trip out west. (((YOU can't see it all in one trip. )))

[Hokie1999]

Thanks razor. I was coming on here to ask the same but see you already got it started. I found a $96 dollar round trip deal to Denver from RDU for the last week of July. Travel Tueday deal. So far I am homing in on the San Juan’s for my week but that will probably change a few times before July.