I'll toss in 2 cents. I also have a 2001 / 4.0 / 5 speed manual. To think about doing it in stages it is really important to know what your current gear set is. If your running 3.07s on stock tires and move to 33's it will be snail sluggish, do it all at the same time. If you have 3.73s and move to 33s it will be tolerable. I ran for almost a year on that combo (3.73/33s), 5th gear is only useful on a flat highway and you will need to down shift on slight hills. When I did my gears, I chose to skip over 4.56 and go to 4.88 because I live just south of you in North Idaho and the little deeper gearing in the mountains here is helpful and I anticipate going to 35s before I am done with my mods. For a 95% road / 5% fire road rig on 33s, 4.56 will be right on the money.
if your just cruising mountain roads to see back country, not getting into deep mud or lifting tires, I highly recommend putting a truetrac LSD in the rear and if you have the bucks, the front is nice to have too but not a big deal. Great LSD in the snow and being gear driven there is no maintenance to speak of.
For the RPM question my 33s measure closer to 32 so I am running just shy of 3000 RPM at 70 on 4.88s, but most of the roads around here are 60 - 65 so I am in the 2600-2700 range most of the time.
That might be 3 cents worth but there you go. Oh welcome to the forum!