Your scene has the makings of something great and you are on the right track.
The approach you took with the ground is correct but you could save a lot of polygons by subdividing more locally to the areas you want resolution. This approach can leave the other areas very low res and light weight.
Another quick method other than using Zbrush or Mudbox would be to use procedural maps and generate a displaced ground plane to use as a starting point. You could even paint a complete environment map in Photoshop using everything from procedural maps to real world geographic maps and aeraial photographs and use this to generate a displaced ground.
If I was to do this I would create a base mesh in Maya/XSI using the local subdivision approach, then take it into Zbrush/Mudbox for additional detail. I would export a resolution that represented the overall volume and shape of the ground and output this for my scene. I would then use the remaining finer resolution divisions to use as a displacement map.
The important thing is that there are a number of ways to approach this, both procedurally and artistically but the most important thing is to put detail where you see it. At the moment your camera doesn't get too close to the ground and you could get away with just a procedural displacement on top of your current mesh.
Are you going to be matte painting in some background mountains to add depth to the final frame of your scene? It will really help the overall look and scale of the scene.
Don't be discouraged by how long the ground has taken, it is looking good and you've obviously learnt a lot from the task. Spend some time now adding a nice subtle displacement and working on an impressive shader which really helps describe the surface eg: wet, dry, mossy, dirty...
cheers
Andrew
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