I'm confused on your timeframe. Are you taking three days up, five days in the Kalispell AO, and three days back?
Our usual schedule is to leave early on a Thursday morning and arrive back home the following Friday. How that nine day block pans out is what I'm trying to lay groundwork for. For our Colorado trips we front-load travel with a full 12 hrs driving the first day, a day in the middle changing locations to slightly closer to home, then a leisurely drive back the last day. Including all the side trips and general sightseeing, it's usually around 2500 miles all told. If we do the Montana thing as a a drive, that's 3100 miles just there and back. 50 hours in the saddle, or just over six solid 8-hr days of driving
not including side trips and sightseeing. We like driving around and seeing things, but six-plus days doing nothing but driving would be a lot even for us. It also means packing up every morning and unpacking every evening, a pain any way you look at it. Then there's fuel. Figure $600-$700 in gas alone, depending on average fuel economy, though in that respect there's some savings in food as we tend to eat sammiches from the cooler.
Not a big deal for now. Being a full year away, we have plenty of time to ponder and plan. Sure do appreciate all the input!
Brad