This might be a dumb question about my rental car. At the moment I'm just getting a standard car like an Impala.
Going in mid June and planning on hiking almost exclusively. Should I be concerned about getting to trailheads in the park? Getting an AWD SUV will set me back another $200 for the week but I'd do it if its what you need to get around.
Take notes
If you want to do polebridge and the lakes in that area, spotted bear ranger station, etc(highly recommend), I would get a SUV. It's dirt/gravel and can get snotty if it rains. Polebridge is a off grid hippy community that has the best huckleberry bear claws on the planet. And make sure you have a spare tire since there is no cell phone service in most places outside town. Whitefish is setup for tourists, it will have everything and a good selection of restaurants close. Plan on very early morning plans because things get crowded and closed around the park. I would hit "going to the sun" at 5 AM, and be done with that part.
The good part is there is tons to do close without dealing with a crowd. There are some cool trails on HWY 2 without much of a crowd. There is a public gold panning area about 90 minutes west of Kalispell if you have never done it and it's free, hundreds of lakes around, you can run up the north fork 20 miles past polebridge to the border ( Numa peak is amazing), fish grayling at red meadow lake, etc. Tuesday is rodeo night at the blue moon bar in Columbia falls, fights start at 11 PM after the rodeo in the bar. Find a guided trip to wild horse island on the south end of flathead lake, it's full of wild horses and bighorn sheep. Spend the money to float the north fork (fish or raft), you won't regret it.
Machine guns MT, and sportsman ski haus are cool gun shops in town.
