I have visited the Wind Rivers (drove hwy 287 iirc from Rawlins to GTNP) and the Beartooths as we were leaving Yellowstone (the Chief Joseph hwy, I was so disappointed because the Beartooth pass was close due to a heavy snow, but the CJ hwy. turned out to be just so freakin unbelievable that it is hard to believe the BT hwy could be much better. Also we visited Rocky Mountain NP. The San Juans and Sawtooths are definitely already on my future radar. I have visited the San Juans back in the 80s with my family, but I want to take my kids through there. Thanks for the tips.
The Beartooth Highway does, indeed, traverse significantly more beautiful country than the Chief Joseph Highway. The Sawtooth Mountains are visually quite reminiscent of the Tetons and just as rugged. Indeed, they were formed by the same geological processes but are about 3,000 feet lower in elevation and far less heavily visited than the Tetons.
The Beartooth Mountains are massive, sprawling, craggy peaks and contain, by far, the highest mountains in Montana. I encountered blizzard conditions (no exaggeration) when traversing the Beartooth Highway in mid-August, 1978. The Beartooths would be a superb area for backpacking or, even horsepacking, as there are plenty of outfitters in the area. The Beartooth Highway is, in my opinion, the second most scenic highway I have driven; it is eclipsed only by the Going-to-the-Sun Highway in Glacier, which, because of the manner in which it was constructed, provides such an intimate view of, and experience with, the high country.
Portions of the Wind River Range are even higher than the Tetons and far more remote. These photos should provide an excellent visual sample of what to expect from this area:
Big Sandy Lodge, Wyoming, Wind River Mountain Resort and
Green River Lakes Campground and trails, Wyoming. Many a fur traders' rendezvous was held in the old Green River Lakes area, and the Museum of the Mountain Man in Pinedale (
Museum of the Mountain Man - Pinedale, Wyoming) would be well worth a visit, as would the extraordinary Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming (
Buffalo Bill Center of the West).
Similarly, the San Juans are one of the great mountain ranges in all of America. High, wild, and rugged, the area is traversed by the San Juan Skyway. James Kay, one of the premier landscape photographers in the country, once described the area surrounding Telluride, which is in the heart of that range, as the single best area for fall foliage photography. The small Sneffels sub-range is, perhaps, the most spectacular portion of this area, which is riddled with 14,000-foot peaks. These images will illustrate why:
Sneffels Range Autumn : San Juan Mountains, Colorado : Mountain Photography by Jack Brauer and
San Juan Mountains - Colorado, Photograph, Autumn.