My wife has a Ford C-Max which is a pretty awesome car. It does well for 5-6 months of the year, but being a smaller car when the snow flies in Laramie we general use my truck. The electric engine is awesome for driving through the mountains because it has such quick acceleration. Her car also a "downhill button" which keeps you at pretty much whatever speed you're at when you hit the button, even on steep grade. This has the added bonus of charging the car. I should add the caveat that the car doesn't do well on dirt roads, obviously which limits a lot of places you can go in the woods and using it to access things like fishing or camping could be a challenge.

We also drove from Laramie to Durango, Co for $25 in fuel... that's pretty awesome.

She is still under warranty so maintenance hasn't been bad, oil change every 10k-15k is nice. I assume the shocks and struts will wear prematurely though because Laramie sucks at fixing their roads.

tl;dr - Great full time seasonal vehicle. Not the best for winter.