Portland to Denver via Montana/Wyoming

Okay experts- we need your advice.
We are planning our first ever road trip for this summer. Our parents drove from point A to point B with very reluctant meal and potty breaks- so we want to take our time on this trip, stop at cool stuff and visit our friends.
We are going to see Butte MT, ghost towns, pan for gold, look for gemstones, visit friends in Victor,ID (2 days) and then in Denver CO suburbs (2-3days?). Google says 23 hours drive time.
I think our route should be Portland,OR, go through ID, MT, then through Yellowstone to Jackson Hole, WY then on to Denver,CO. We have just 2 weeks. But I'd like your advice for the route.

I'm thinking a really nice idea would be to rent a car for the trip out and buy plane tickets for the return. But, this would add a little cost to the trip.

So... what is your opinion.
Should we drive there and back in 2 weeks? How much time do you think that would give us to look around/rest.
What cool stops do you like on this proposed route?
Thanks!

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

Doing the drive as a round trip is going to be pretty dramatically cheaper. Between the one way drop fee for the car rental and the airfare, you're going to be looking at quite a lot of money.

It really is irrelevant to look at hours on a trip like this, and google estimates assume you don't make meal or other stops, even reluctant ones! Realistically, you're looking at a good 3 days to make the trip via Montana and Idaho, and you could do it in 2 pretty long days if you took the more direct route. Even if you do a round trip, you'd still have about 9 days of pure exploration. Even with 5 days visiting friends in ID and Denver, you'd have 4 days for Yellowstone/tetons and other things to do along the way.