Best Place for a Week Long Backpacking/Beer Drinking Trip?

[razorguy]

Ok, so I'm getting married in September and my fiance and I are trying to plan the honeymoon. To sum it up briefly, her mom is paying for the honeymoon and wanted us to do an all inclusive trip to Mexico somewhere but her aunt already spilled the beans that she is giving us a week at her condo on the beach in Florida so we are going to take the opportunity to have her mom pay for our airfare out west instead so we can hike, camp, and drink beer that we otherwise don't have here in West Virginia. We aren't really "beach people" so two beach trips doesn't sound appealing.

Anyway, with that being said, we were originally looking at central Oregon for the trip but the more we look, the more we realize there are so many incredible looking places out west and we really have no idea at this point where we should go. We are planning on spending half our nights in the wilderness and the other half in hotels because we really love beer and want to hit up a few micro breweries in whatever area we end up being in.

So what do you guys think? We still have a lot of time to decide so at this point I'm just really hoping to narrow our choices down. It seems like everytime we start looking we see somewhere else we want to go so it's hard to chose!

Thanks in advance for your help!

[wsp_scott]

Colorado has beer and outdoors
Rocky Mountain NP is close to Denver (easy flight) and there are a lot of breweries near by, only problem might be snow at higher elevations if you go at the end of Sept.

[Nodust]

Glacier National Park is great that time of year. You may see some snow but otherwise less crowds and most trails should still be open. Whitefish is a cool town, although not sure how many microbrews they have.

I have been wanting to take a fall Glacier trip for years now.

[razorguy]

Those are a couple places we have looked at so far are we are a little concerned about the potential for snow. I wouldn't mind a little but definitely not her. That's why we were originally leaning toward central Oregon because most of the nice spots are at a lower elevation.

[Nodust]

Arizona has some good spots. Not sure if things start cooling off in September. Flagstaff was nice even in July. You could even make a side trip to the Grand Canyon.

[EdLee]

Hi Razorguy,

I don't have any suggestions for you, I just wanted to tell you that I grew up in Huntington. I live in the Eastern Panhandle now, but I get back home a few times a year.

Peace,

Ed

[razorguy]

Arizona has some good spots. Not sure if things start cooling off in September. Flagstaff was nice even in July. You could even make a side trip to the Grand Canyon.

September here in West Virginia is still pretty warm so I'm sure an Arizona September would be quite do-able. Haven't thought to look down that way so I definitely will!

Hi Razorguy,

I don't have any suggestions for you, I just wanted to tell you that I grew up in Huntington. I live in the Eastern Panhandle now, but I get back home a few times a year.

Peace,

Ed

I make it over your way (close anyway) quite a bit in the warmer months. I'm actually getting married at Blackwater Falls State Park at Pendleton Point which I'm sure you're familiar with since you live over that way. My friends and I do a lot of camping around there so you should meet up with us sometime!

[EdLee]

I make it over your way (close anyway) quite a bit in the warmer months. I'm actually getting married at Blackwater Falls State Park at Pendleton Point which I'm sure you're familiar with since you live over that way. My friends and I do a lot of camping around there so you should meet up with us sometime!

That sounds awesome! Just let me know when you are around here.

[Kaycee]

You could go North!
The north shore of Lake Superior, Duluth has numerous craft breweries up the road Two Harbors has one and further up Grand Marais has two. Connecting them is the Superior Hiking Trail. You could do day or multi day trips on the trail and then hit the breweries. Late September is a great time in Minnesota the colors are coming out, cooler temps and low bug numbers.
Lots of videos out there about the SHT.

[DanglingModifier]

Not to belittle other fine cities with great breweries, but the two best cities to go to for craft beer on the west coast are Portland Oregon and San Diego. A case could be made that either is the better place for beer, but Oregon definitely has better backpacking and hanging opportunities than southern CA. If you haven't been to Portland I'd recommend a couple days there. In addition to great beer, Portland has the best food scene on the west coast at the moment.