Fall is a great time to get out of town. It’s also the best time to get out of doors. With that in mind, here are four destinations where the focus is stunning scenery and outdoor activities.

Salt Lake City

The slogan on Utah’s license plates boasts “the greatest snow on earth.” Come February, the state will also have the “greatest show on earth” as the world focuses its attention on Salt Lake City, the host of the XIX Winter Olympics. From Feb. 8 to 24, the city and the neighboring communities of Park City, Heber City, Ogden, and Provo will be home to 3,500 athletes from 80 countries competing in 70 medal events. There are also dozens of free concerts, festivals, and other activities scheduled to amuse the tens of thousands expected to attend the games.

While tickets to certain events are still available, accommodations in the area are pretty much sold out. There exists, however, an excellent opportunity to experience the Olympics in Salt Lake City without the crowds and high prices by heading to Utah right now. After all, the weather’s great and the scenery is outstanding as the aspens of the Wasatch Mountains turn Olympic gold in the fall. Plus, you can eyeball all the Olympic venues; stroll through Olympic Village, a beautifully restored 19th-century U.S. Army base where athletes will be housed; and even see top athletes perform for a mere pittance.

In fact, how does $5 a carload sound? That’s all it costs right now to tour Utah Olympic Park near Park City, home of the bobsled, luge, and Nordic jumping events and the training facility for freestyle skiers. On a visit here in August, my husband and I watched these daredevils execute twisting flips off ski ramps into a huge pool of water that substitutes for the snowy landing surface.

Booking a room at a reasonable rate is easy this fall too. In Salt Lake City, we stayed at the elegant Grand America Hotel (where NBC media stars will stay in February), toured the hip Hotel Monaco (where Seiko and Gateway bigwigs will be housed), and spent another night at the Inn on Capitol Hill, an exquisite 1906 mansion-turned-inn that’s sold out during the Olympics. In the nearby Wasatch Mountains, we stayed at Snowbird Ski & Summer Resort and toured Alta and Solitude ski resorts. Park City Mountain Resort also offers an array of lodging options with proximity to Park City’s trendy Main Street lined with upscale shops and restaurants. Just a mile or two from Main Street, the Lodges at Deer Valley offer spacious condo accommodations with a view of the slalom, combined slalom, and freestyle skIng runs right on the property. The Canyons, the newest ski resort in the area, is also the closest lodging option to Utah Olympic Park. For more information and a free visitors guide, call (800) 541-4955 or go to www.visitsaltlake.com. Ski buffs can call Ski Utah at (800) 754-8824, or go to www.skiutah.com.

Grayton Beach State Park

I’ve camped in the desert, the mountains, and even in Los Angeles, but until this summer I’d never camped on the beach. That’s when my husband and I bought a tent and took the plunge at Grayton Beach State Park, a 1,133-acre preserve along the Gulf of Mexico in Walton County, Fla. Conveniently sandwiched between the beach towns of Seaside and Grayton Beach on Highway 30-A, the park encompasses parts of Western Lake, a mile of beach, a nature trail that winds among sand dunes and pine flatwoods, and 37 campsites equipped with electricity, picnic tables, grills, and running water.

Though campsites are within walking distance of the beach, most campers prefer to drive or bike along a paved road to the beach access. The hiking trail, a winding path over sandy dunes and through shady pines, begins at the beach access parking lot too. Being within a state park, the beach is devoid of development, making it one of the few stretches along the Florida Gulf Coast where you won’t see a house or hotel as you stroll along the sand. If that makes for beautiful days at the beach, it also makes for quiet nights camping under the stars.

Nightly fees are $16 (including electricity) March through September and $10 October through February. If roughing it isn’t your style, you can also stay at the park’s new Grayton Dunes Cabins, modern two-bedroom, one-bath modern beach cottages that go for $160 a night March through September and $85 a night October through February. For information, call (850) 231-4210.

Rock Island State Park

Of course, you don’t have to go all the way to Florida to enjoy camping out. Middle Tennessee has some wonderful state parks—though you may want to visit one soon before the state budget battle creates more casualties in that department. We just discovered Rock Island State Park this summer, though the 883-acre site is an old favorite with folks from Murfreesboro and McMinnville.

It’s also a favorite with Hollywood. Rent the Sylvester Stallone/Sharon Stone potboiler The Specialist, and you’ll see Stallone and James Woods playing CIA assassins at work in the park—which doubles as a wooded area in South America in the film’s opening sequence. Today you can walk or drive over the very bridge Stallone and Woods blow up in the film and enjoy the rugged scenery that makes the park so attractive to filmmakers and nature lovers alike.

The park owes its natural beauty to three rivers that converge here and then flow into a deep gorge highlighted by two spectacular waterfalls and a riverbed filled with car-sized boulders. There are 60 campsites, plus 10 modern cabins, picnic and swimming areas, and hiking and mountain-biking trails. The park is about 17 miles northwest of McMinnville, just off Highway 70 South. For more details, call (931) 686-2471.

New Hampshire’s Mount Washington Valley

It was a mild and sunny 72 degrees by the time my husband and I reached the base of Mt. Washington via Mt. Washington Auto Road, an eight-mile route that winds its way up the 6,288-foot peak. A mere 30 minutes before our descent, however, we had endured a 25-degree wind chill and felt stinging sleet in our faces as we stood on the fog-shrouded summit—in late July.

The New Hampshire mountain boasts the “world’s worst weather,” and you’ll get no argument from us on that point. When the weather’s fine on the summit—which it certainly can be—you’ll have great views of the surrounding White Mountains. One of the most stunning views in the entire area, though, is far below at the Flume Gorge in Franconia Notch State Park. The 800-foot-long gash was cut in the sheer 90-foot-tall granite walls nearly 200 million years ago but only discovered by modern man in 1808. The gorge quickly became a tourist attraction, with Victorian ladies and gents intrepidly tramping along a wooden walkway to see the amazing rock formations and waterfalls hikers still enjoy today.

While camping facilities abound in New Hampshire’s White Mountains, the bed-and-breakfast inns that dot the landscape here are too enticing to pass up. We stayed one night at the 11-room Cabernet Inn ((800) 866-4704/www.cabernetinn.com) in North Conway, N.H., and dined next door at the 1785 Inn ((603) 356-9025). Then we moved on for two nights at the 13-room Notchland Inn ((800) 866-6131/www.notchland.com) in Hart’s Location. We also toured the Buttonwood Inn ((800) 258-2625/www.buttonwoodinn.com) and the Mt. Washington Hotel and Resort ((603) 278-1000/www.mtwashington.com), famous as the haunted hotel in the film version of Stephen King’s chiller The Shining, and we had dinner at the Wildcat Inn ((603) 383-4245/www.wildcatinnandtavern.com).

To reach the Mount Washington Valley area of New Hampshire, we flew via US Airways to Portland, Maine, and then drove about 65 miles west to North Conway. We could also have caught a nonstop Southwest flight into Manchester, N.H., and driven some 80 miles north to the area. However you get there, it’s a destination well worth the journey. For more information, go to www.mountwashingtonvalley.com or www.visitwhitemountains.com.