LCOL- MCOL chill, mountain town

My family (we’re in our mid 30s with a 4 year old child) is looking to relocate to a chill mountain town. Moving from south Louisiana. We’re tired of the swampy/flat terrain, humidity, and the overall unhealthy lifestyle that is prevalent here. We will absolutely miss the festivals, food, and Cajun culture though.

As a family we like camping, hiking, road trips. We currently live on 2 acres and spend a lot of time at home in the yard/patio. My husband is into rock hunting and wood working, my daughter loves anything outdoors/wild life, and I’m into gardening, cooking and art. Our dream is to be able to travel up to half of the year.

Like most people here we prefer the west coast, but I don’t think our budget is going to work.

Main wants: - Mountain or mountain adjacent towns - Low humidity. - We try to live a low environmental impact lifestyle, and would love to find a community that appreciates the same. We find that lacking where we currently live. - close proximity to hiking, camping, waterfalls etc - budget less than $500k (would love more around $300k so we can travel 1/2 the year.. but I know that’s not realistic lol)

Nice to have, but can compromise: - Moderate to left leaning politics (I know this get complicated when you go more rural, so we may just have to find our group) - would like at least an acre, but with down sizing the budget, might have to give this up. - good public schools (not against homeschool if we’re able to travel part of the year) - we’re fine with smaller towns and being rural, but do need some sort of civilization nearby (15-20 minute drive). For us that would be an actual grocery store, and some restaurants. So not a total ghost town. Would be great to be an hour out from a big city, but can compromise on this.