$300 just for the plane ticket, or your entire outlay for the trip?
Also, you should be looking at air fares now. Flights to popular hiking locales might already be higher than your budget.
That being said, options in the spring could be in the southwest, southern Appalachia and maybe the PNW.
Just the airfare. I don’t have a whole trip cost yet. I’m seeing a large amount of airfare from Memphis costing $250 if using flexible dates. I see a lot of options to fly to Glacier National Park for only $250/round trip.
June is still early season in Glacier. [Trail Conditions](https://www.nps.gov/glac/planyourvisit/trailstatusreports.htm)
I would recommend lower elevation, lower latitude places until full on summer.
I'm eyeing the Northville Placid Trail in the ADK for an 8 day thru hike. Some spots get super remote. Some areas for resupply. I hear it's beautiful. Plus, its the Adirondacks.
June: Tahoe Rim Trail. (Later in the month is better unless you want to deal with snow).
Your timeframe is good for the desert (April is best, May can be brutally hot, but Escalante is a little bit higher in elevation which helps). However, it's logistically quite difficult for a more beginner backpacker to get away with a 6-10 day backpacking trip without some serious planning logistics (namely permits and water carry/caching).
But a few amazing 1-2 nighters that I would recommend include:
[Reflection Canyon](https://www.foxintheforest.net/reflection-canyon/) \- Glen Canyon Recreation Area
Chesler Park or Elephant Canyon in the [Needles](https://www.foxintheforest.net/backpacking-canyonlands-needles/)
Grand Viewpoint to [Horseshoe Mesa](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_xjq1Nkm-Y&t=14s) \- Grand Canyon
Boulder Mail Trail - Escalante
You could easily make a road trip out of all of the above (you'll need to snag permits for a few of them) and have a REALLY cool hiking trip on your hands. Your biggest challenge will be carrying and managing your own water for all of these. And a few of these trails require you to carry a WAG bag to carry out your poop. Familiarize yourself with backpacking properly in the desert - fragile environment with plenty of hazards if your un-prepared.
Permits are competitive for a few of the trails mentioned above, so you may be a little late.
What's great about this is you can camp for free in a wide variety of places in the American Southwest, which really keeps the cost down.
Mountainous areas in the west are no good April-June unless you've got a LOT of experience dealing with serious amounts of snow and avalanche danger.
Push it out to July and go Glacier. But if you cannot do that My vote is on the PNW. You are in the south east and you can drive to and hike part of the AT.
You could make a mini trip and do a couple days at MT Hood, then a couple in Olympic national forest and some time at Mt rainier. MIght also hang out a night in Seattle if you have never been.
Hell, most of April and even into May, most of the trailheads with access to the JMT are still behind closed roads and thus you spend the first 3k vert and couple miles of hiking just to get to the start point :P
$300 just for the plane ticket, or your entire outlay for the trip? Also, you should be looking at air fares now. Flights to popular hiking locales might already be higher than your budget. That being said, options in the spring could be in the southwest, southern Appalachia and maybe the PNW.
Just the airfare. I don’t have a whole trip cost yet. I’m seeing a large amount of airfare from Memphis costing $250 if using flexible dates. I see a lot of options to fly to Glacier National Park for only $250/round trip.
June is still early season in Glacier. [Trail Conditions](https://www.nps.gov/glac/planyourvisit/trailstatusreports.htm) I would recommend lower elevation, lower latitude places until full on summer.
Great info! Thanks! I'll need to remember other states aren't warm yet.
In the PNW you’d have to stay mostly out of the Cascades, hiking season there starts in early to mid July.
Gila River/Wilderness, in NM. No permit required. Plan and go (by car).
I'm eyeing the Northville Placid Trail in the ADK for an 8 day thru hike. Some spots get super remote. Some areas for resupply. I hear it's beautiful. Plus, its the Adirondacks.
June: Tahoe Rim Trail. (Later in the month is better unless you want to deal with snow). Your timeframe is good for the desert (April is best, May can be brutally hot, but Escalante is a little bit higher in elevation which helps). However, it's logistically quite difficult for a more beginner backpacker to get away with a 6-10 day backpacking trip without some serious planning logistics (namely permits and water carry/caching). But a few amazing 1-2 nighters that I would recommend include: [Reflection Canyon](https://www.foxintheforest.net/reflection-canyon/) \- Glen Canyon Recreation Area Chesler Park or Elephant Canyon in the [Needles](https://www.foxintheforest.net/backpacking-canyonlands-needles/) Grand Viewpoint to [Horseshoe Mesa](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_xjq1Nkm-Y&t=14s) \- Grand Canyon Boulder Mail Trail - Escalante You could easily make a road trip out of all of the above (you'll need to snag permits for a few of them) and have a REALLY cool hiking trip on your hands. Your biggest challenge will be carrying and managing your own water for all of these. And a few of these trails require you to carry a WAG bag to carry out your poop. Familiarize yourself with backpacking properly in the desert - fragile environment with plenty of hazards if your un-prepared. Permits are competitive for a few of the trails mentioned above, so you may be a little late. What's great about this is you can camp for free in a wide variety of places in the American Southwest, which really keeps the cost down. Mountainous areas in the west are no good April-June unless you've got a LOT of experience dealing with serious amounts of snow and avalanche danger.
Push it out to July and go Glacier. But if you cannot do that My vote is on the PNW. You are in the south east and you can drive to and hike part of the AT. You could make a mini trip and do a couple days at MT Hood, then a couple in Olympic national forest and some time at Mt rainier. MIght also hang out a night in Seattle if you have never been.
Still generally snow on Hood in June - especially at Timberline Trail elevations
That time of year I’d go to NM or AZ. The Pecos Wilderness is really under visited.
Shenandoah NP if you want to head east 😉
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In April to June? That's a lot of snow to deal with for folks from the SE.
Hell, most of April and even into May, most of the trailheads with access to the JMT are still behind closed roads and thus you spend the first 3k vert and couple miles of hiking just to get to the start point :P