We wanted our house to be near the mountains, with good views and reasonable access (which we define as the road being impassable for no more than two weeks at a time). However, the most important aspect was southern exposure so that the solar systems would work.

We spent several vacations looking around the Northern Rocky Mountains (i.e. Wyoming, Idaho and Montana in the US) and finally settled on south-central Montana in the foothills of the Beartooth Range. We found some land at about 5800ft altitude with Southern exposure.

Here is a QuickTimeVR panorama taken from the roof of the house: Panorama (652k)