Yes, crossing the road is something that I've never found to be a problem at all, but is still something that the rangers usually need to work out in their minds to issue the right permit for. You're there anyhow, so might as well get what you need with full blessings.
10 Lakes from Waterwheel would be an "interesting" cross-country route. But just like Tenaya Canyon, I guess you could die there, too. Using trails though, you can backtrack to Glen Aulin, head up towards May Lake, cut off on the 10 Lakes trail, climb up to Tuolumne Peak, camp up at the tarns towards the top or head over to the other side and maybe find some camping on the ledges before the switchbacks or go down to South Fork of Cathedral Creek and find more good spots there, climb a lot more, then drop into 10 Lakes Basin, then head down to the Yosemite Creek trailhead and into the Valley.. You're certainly going to be "multi-day", and "wilderness", and you're going to test your mettle in the process. Shoot, now you've got me looking at my topos to try to figure out how to get up to 10 Lakes from GCT and how much it's going to hurt to do it. Thanks!