NJ Gun owner - CCW question

Hey all and thank you in advance for any advice you can give.​I'm an NJ gun owner and have been since I was 18 but never had much of an interest in getting a CCW (mainly because screw NJ) until recently. I'm a hiker and had an incident on a trail with bear. Everyone is healthy and all is fine but for future purposes I want to make the moves to be able to carry during longer hikes out of state. I just booked a trip to hike for 10 days between Arizona and Utah and would ideally like to have it by Mid May. I've been looking at the Virgina CCW but just read that they are 3-6 months backed up. Can anyone give some advise to the best and most expedient permit to go with or should I just apply for VA and hope it arrives in time? My main states for hiking are VT, VA, UT and AZ via /r/CCW http://bit.ly/2AuOuWy