my wife and i are looking to go on a hiking trip this summer. we are not looking to do a 4 day over-nighter. ideally, we want a place where we can do a bunch of different day hikes from one location. also, we want to stay away from crowds - kind of a "getaway from it all" type trip. anyone have any suggestions?
If you like the mountains, Colorado is great for hiking. If you don't want crowds, stay away from Denver and Estes Park. Allenspark, Nederland, Evergreen, and many others are great.
So are you looking to setup camp somewhere and then go on your dayhikes or are you planning on staying in a hotel and then doing your dayhikes? Central Idaho and the Ketchum/Sun Valley would be your kind of place I think. You can't go wrong if you are car camping or staying in a hotel in the area. You can stay at Redfish Lake in either the lodge or in the many numerous camping spots around the lake and do a good number of different dayhikes. Or you can stay in Ketchum/Sun Valley (very resort townish) and rent a car and then drive to different areas to do your dayhikes. There are also a good number of bike shops that rent bikes. You can also drive up to Stanley (about an hour north or so) and do a day river trip. If you make it up there I could possibly drive up to Blaine County and show you around. I've never been to the Grand Tetons but you may want to research that as well.
prefer not to camp, but we don't want an expensive hotel with all the bells and whistles either. as small mom and pop type place is fine as long as it's clean, quiet and close to the trails.
My favorite place on Earth is Zion National Park in Southern Utah. Zion is a popular park, but you can find plenty of less crowded day hikes. Hidden Canyon, which is a hanging canyon that drops into the main canyon, is my favorite. I went during memorial day weekend and only a few other hikers were on that trail. If you like hiking and scrambling, visit Hidden Canyon. The park is huge with dozens of trails but most people only use about 4 or 5. You should be able to find some peace and quiet. I drove in from the east side of the park and was totally blown away. But most people come in from the west since they usually fly into Las Vegas. I flew into Albuquerque and drove the rest of the way. Stay at the lodge if you can. You will make up in the morning to some amazing views of the canyon. And you don't have to worry about parking in the morning. Bryce Canyon is about an hour away by car from Zion and offers some nice hikes as well. It sits at a higher elevation so the temperature is a bit lower. Check out http://www.so-utah.com and http://www.gorp.com for some landscape photos and travel guides.
I would second the Zion recommendation, it's also not a long drive from Zion to the north rim of the GC (1 1/2 hours). Another suggestion would be Flagstaff. There are a ton of cheap hotels and there is a bunch of different kinds of hikes both in town and close by. The San Francisco Mts, while not as dramatic as the Rockies, have great hiking terrain and they are never crowded. The environment is mostly aspen and connifer forest, and they are volcanic, if that gives you any idea of the mountain shapes. Sedona is a half-hour down the road with all kinds of exposed sandstone, slick-rock hikes. The South Rim is an hour north.
NED! I love Ned! There are so many places to hike within a half hour I couldn't give a count if I tried. Within driving distance I'd recommend the Presidential Range in NH, but you'll run into crowds on the weekends, especially if it's in July or August. Back to CO, near Springs there is Pike's PEak and loads of hiking parks, trails, etc. nearby.
A co-worker of mine at REI just went down to Sedona with some mtn. biking buddies of hers and said it was a blast.
Sedona's a lot like the area around Moab, except that the slickrock at Sedona rises out of forested hillsides rather than out of high desert scrub. I didn't have my bike the summer I was living in Flagstaff (what was I thinking). The hiking (and the biking I imagine) is great, especially if you can avoid the crystal-weilding folks looking for vortexes.