With an $8k budget, fly into Rapid City. Some combo of Badlands, Mt. Rushmore, Black Hills, Custer state park, Deadwood. Drive to Cody, go to the rodeo, see Old Faithful. Fly home from Cody.

It’s also 100+ degrees at the bottom of Grand Canyon in the summer! Definitely not the “mild weather” OP is looking for.

Anonymous wrote:Rafting thru the Grand Canyon with OARS? You sleep on sand beaches. They cook wonderful meals over a fire! No devices . Great to do as a family.

Their tween might be too young. Also not sure how long ago you did this but with the droughts and the decrease in the Colorado, the GC rafting is becoming increasingly difficult. But I had friends that used them on a different river and loved them.

Anonymous wrote:Rafting thru the Grand Canyon with OARS? You sleep on sand beaches. They cook wonderful meals over a fire! No devices . Great to do as a family.

We did the Rogue River with OARS and loved it too.

Idaho, Montana, North Carolina (the areas now suffering from floods), Vermont.

We did all of those things in Colorado this summer. Was lovely and mild near the Rockies when it was 100 degrees plus in DC.

+1 to Vancouver Island.

Definitely the Pacific Northwest. Seattle and the Olympic Peninsula are beautiful. We especially loved the coast around the Quileute are. Quileute Ocenside Resort is on a beautiful beach. You can hike on Rialto beach and Hoh rainforest.

Vancouver and the areas north of Vancouver; Whistler and Garibaldi provincial park are beautiful. Vancouver islands is also incredible. While an Island it is actually huge and has a lot of diverse areas.

Lake Placid, NY might fit the bill and will be well within your budget. Tons of hiking, biking, and boating opportunities there. I also believe there is an adventure park w/ ziplines, etc. There is also all the Olympic stuff up there.

Rafting thru the Grand Canyon with OARS? You sleep on sand beaches. They cook wonderful meals over a fire! No devices . Great to do as a family.