Is a 4Runner good for camping? Yes, the Toyota 4Runner is a reliable off-road, midsize SUV with great towing capacity. Like most off-road vehicles, you can take a stock Toyota 4Runner camping right off the dealer’s lot.
Colorado’s Grand Mesa
About 80 miles east of Grand Junction you’ll find the newly renovated Electric Mountain Lodge. Located at 9,200 feet atop the Grand Mesa—the world’s largest flat-top mountain—the four-room, five-cabin property sits at the gateway to Grand Mesa National Forest, providing guests access to over 300,000 acres of backcountry. The remote location feels like your own private park, with 200-some miles of trails for mountain biking and hiking.
Texas Hill Country
Increasingly, though, the area’s rolling limestone and granite hills and spring-fed rivers are luring mountain bikers, climbers, hikers, and paddlers. There’s no better time to visit this area than the fall, when the summer sun stops pounding Central Texas with 100-degree heat. For hiking, there’s Enchanted Rock State Natural Area, home to the U.S.’s second largest granite dome,
rising 425 feet above the surrounding landscape. For a longer hike, there’s the 4.6-mile Loop Trail, which circumnavigates the dome.
Oregon’s Best Adventure Town
The small town of Sisters often gets relegated to the backseat when it’s compared to adventure-mecca Bend, but the artsy community shouldn’t be overlooked as a nature-lover’s paradise, especially in fall. The 36 craftsman-style cabins at FivePine Lodge & Spa are nestled in a ponderosa forest and biking distance to the Peterson Ridge Trail system. While most of Central Oregon is enveloped in ponderosa pine and juniper, the greater Sisters area also boasts an abundance of aspens and western larch trees that are ablaze in color each fall.
Hidden Catskills, New York
In fall, the Catskills are filled with New Yorkers in search of brightly-colored foliage. For good reason: this region is an idyllic weekend escape, with apple picking at quaint orchards, excellent meals at farm-to-table restaurants, and hiking underneath a kaleidoscopic tree canopy. The DeBruce is a 14-room former hunting and fishing lodge - set in the Willowemoc Valley - has hosted guests on and off since the 1880’s. The Debruce’s 600 acres, and guests have a private half-mile section of river for trout fishing.
Utah’s Zion National Park
Zion National Park is just 232 square miles and can get 676,000 visitors in peak summer months. Thankfully the trails throughout Greater Zion—a term coined in 2019 to encourage travelers to think beyond the relatively small park boundaries—are equally spectacular. Fall is the ideal time
for hiking in the area. The area’s distinctive red rocks become even more striking when set against autumn foliage, with trees lit up in vermilion, burgundy, and honey-colored hues. Tucked away on the backside of the park, Water Canyon has undulating, streaked walls and waterfalls reminiscent of the most popular canyons in Zion.
Discover Florida’s Coastal Dune Lakes
Most of the spring break activity is centered around Pensacola and the beaches to the East, leaving South Walton, a stretch of supremely scenic beaches largely free of the chaos—especially in fall. Here, some 40 percent of the land is preserved, and there are over 200 miles of hiking and biking trails to explore. Gulf of Mexico adventures include paddle boarding and snorkeling. Venturing inland explore South Walton’s system of 15 coastal dune lakes, rare formations created when windblown-sand is redistributed to create shallow freshwater pools.
Lake McConaughy in Nebraska
Smack dab in the middle of the Great Plains you can eke out a few more months of your summer water-sports obsessions—kiteboarding, wake surfing, and paddle boarding—on Lake McConaughy. About a 3.5-hour drive from Denver, Nebraska’s largest lake boasts 55 square miles of astonishingly crystal blue water and over 70 miles of white sandy shoreline. After September 12, when the crowds disappear, you can have your pick of right-on-the-sand sites.
Tucson, Arizona
There are few better places in the U.S. for world-class cycling than Tucson—at least outside the triple-digit heat of summer. The city of 500,000 has become a magnet for serious bikers in winter, but fall may be the best time of all, with afternoon highs in the 80s. The aspen and maple trees in the canyons of Santa Catalina Mountains turn bright gold and deep red, and
locals come out of their summer hibernation to host a series of fall events, which includes gem shows and artisan markets that are huge draws for the artists that have put Tucson on the map.
Northern New Mexico
When the aspen trees in New Mexico’s Sangre de Cristo Mountains go into bright yellow overdrive in fall, there are few more dramatic destinations in the U.S. than Taos, an absolute world-class outdoor destination. Hiking and mountain-biking on the renowned South Boundary Trail, fishing for wild rainbows in the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument, and summiting 13,159-foot Wheeler Peak, the state’s highest—these are all standard and beloved adventure options.
Glamping in Maine
Maine’s Acadia National Park encompasses the most impressive rocky headlands along the entire U.S. East Coast. This sweet spot happens in September, just before the deciduous trees start flaming all-out crimson. This year, during its first season in Maine, the glamping outpost Under Canvas Acadia is staying open until October. The camp’s 63 safari-inspired tents—all with private bathrooms and some with private fire pits—hug a rugged stretch of coastline along the Blue Hill Peninsula, less than 20 miles northwest of the park, with views of Cadillac and Dorr mountains shimmering across the bay.
Best suspension upgrades for towing with a Toyota 4Runner
Without a doubt, the term ‘best’ choice would include ‘most reliable’. Timbren SES suspension upgrades - TORSEQ - are the most reliable because they’re bulletproof and require zero maintenance: a truly ‘set it and forget it’ system!
All Timbren SES products come with a No B.S. Lifetime Warranty and a 100-Day Customer Satisfaction Guarantee.