Do keep in mind that Out West vacations of pretty much any kind are likely to involve a fair amount of driving in one way or another, either to get from your point of arrival to a home base of some kind, and/or between cool things of one kind or another you’d really not want to miss. That’s the price you pay for the wide open spaces. Heck, going to school in Socorro, NM (home of Mythbusters’ rocket sled experiments!), there’d be people drive an hour and a half to Albuquerque (one way, mind you) to get Taco Bell. The nice thing about that area, though, is the drives themselves are just beautiful with lots to see.
We just came back from a vacation where we flew in to Billings, drove down into Yellowstone through the Beartooth Pass, spent two nights in Yellowstone at Canyon Lodge, then relocated to Flagg Ranch in Grand Tetons for three nights, drove out through the East entrance to Cody, visited the Buffalo Bill Center of the west, stayed the night there before driving back to Billings for our flight out. The parks each have several little “towns” with lodges, restaurants, general store, and like amenities. Most of the villages include a base of operations for trail rides, but as far as I could tell the ones in the park were of the one-to-two hour nose-to-tail walk along sort of thing. We did one and it was very enjoyable, but if you’re looking for more of a serious excursion with hours a day into the back country, I don’t think that is possible with those outfits based within the park.
As part of the Teton trip we visited the Jackson area. I am sure that there are any number of the high end sorts of dude ranches that you say you don’t want, as that was kind of the original THING that got the area going, tourist-wise, but we didn’t specifically see any where we were, it was mostly shopping and ski-associated stuff.
On the road out the East gate of Yellowstone towards Cody, though, it seemed like you couldn’t swing a cat without hitting a sign for a ranch or “horse crossing” where a trail crossed the road. I don’t know anything specifically about any of them, but from looking at the gates/signs and the outbuildings, they seemed to be more on the down-to-earth side, the kinds of places with a Mr. Coffee in the feed room rather than an espresso machine a barista, you know? I’d look around in that area.
Make sure you plan ahead and keep weather in mind. We booked months ago and weren’t able to stay all five nights in Yellowstone like we wanted because it was booked, even though we were traveling on the “shoulder” week for school (our system lets out a week before most). If you want to stay the full stay in the park, book way ahead, probably over a year ahead of time if you want to stay at Old Faithful (which I’m not sure I would, it was a zoo). Summer and opening of some of the roads and trails comes later than it does for most North Americans, we were lucky Beartooth had opened and stayed open by the first week of June (and there were skiers all over the place, many trying to hitch rides back up the mountain). Main roads within the park were open, but many of the smaller offshoots, picnic areas, and trails were still closed due to snow.
