Frenchy’s Meadow

As you may recall from a previous post (See Blog entry from 1/08/14 for more details), Frenchy’s Meadow, prior to the forest fires of 1988, supported probably the highest densities of moose than anywhere else in northern YNP due to its vast willow meadows that provided food and dense mature conifer forest surrounding it that provided winter habitat. However, the fires of 1988 burned much of the mature conifer and consequently since then the area supports fewer moose. Frenchy’s Meadow is located ~ 5 miles north of the Park in the Gallatin National Forest, but its moose habitat is contiguous along the Slough Creek drainage in the park and so moose move freely between these areas throughout the year.

Lisa imitating a bull in Frenchy’s meadow trying to lose his antlers.

We started our trip at 7:30 am on January 2^nd from the Slough Creek bathroom lot and were back at the trailhead on the afternoon of January 7^th.  We spent two nights at the Park Service Elk Tongue Ranger Cabin, one night on the way in and one on the way out, and three nights at the Forest Service Patrol Cabin at the south end of Frenchy’s Meadow. We had company the first night since our good friends Kira Cassidy from the Yellowstone Wolf Project and Ronan Donovan from National Geographic joined us for the first leg of our journey. They made us dinner, carrying in fresh tomatoes, avocadoes, and venison! We had a great time playing Kira’s newly acquired board game “Ticket to Ride” that night on the floor in front of the blazing wood stove, the board illuminated by head lamps and a Coleman lantern. The next morning Kira and Ronan headed back to civilization and Lisa and I continued on up to the Meadow.

We reached the Forest Service cabin at dusk, fired up the wood cook stove for heat, had dinner and went to bed wondering what we would find for moose activity the next day.  We were excited to find out that the two big bulls that were in the Meadow the year before were still there and this year they were even bigger!  We had good looks at them and were able to take a couple photos with a point and shoot camera through a pair of binoculars.

Frenchy’s Meadow Bulls taken with point and shoot through binoculars.

This was now easy feat. We thought these would be the only moose we would see as snow depths were considerable and we thought any other moose would have already taken refuge in the nearest conifer forests.  We were pleasantly surprised to see group of 3 (yearling bull and cow with a calf) and a lone cow.  We also collected pellet samples from fresh tracks of another group of moose that we didn’t see.  After getting back to the cabin following a successful day in the meadow, we decided to go back up the meadow the following day try to see the moose we sampled but didn’t get a look at. It had been snowing all day and the snow had started to accumulate but we didn’t think much of it and went to bed well fed and cozy in our sleeping bags.

Snowed in at Frenchy’s Meadow Forest Service cabin!

The next morning we awoke to find not only that it was still snowing but that ~ 16” of snow had already fallen, and it was now snowing harder than the day before and blowing sideways. Revisiting the north end of the Meadow was now out of the question, and since our exit route would take us directly into the driving and drifting snow, we decided that we better not attempt the ski back to Elk Tongue cabin either. Breaking trail through deep snow, not being able to see, and possibly not making it to our destination didn’t sound very appealing. So, we hunkered down for the day, lit the cook stove, made some soup, and played a lot of gin.

This is where one bison had to turn around.

The next day we awoke to over 24” of light snow. The sky was clear so we packed up and began the big push back to ET cabin. The tracks we had broken on the way in were long gone so we had to re-brake trail through knee deep snow and along parts of our routes we were pushing through 3’ to 4’ drifts. We saw the two big bulls we had seen two days earlier not long after we started. They were along the creek eating willow and effortlessly navigating the deep snow with their 4’ long legs.  Twice along the way we ran into bison who were also trying to leave the meadow for lower elevations and who were in front of us on the trail.  We happily started following their tracks at they made our travel easier, but eventually we would catch up to them and find them mired neck deep in huge drifts with nowhere to go.  We’d have to circle around to convince them to go back on their trails so that we could move past them and continue along our way. As we continued the temperature rose above freezing and the snow started to get very heavy.  As we circled on

Unable to move in the heavy wet snow and too tired to care!

particular pair of bull bison we realized that they were stuck, locked in by the cement-like snow. We have heard stories of bison that have died standing up when stuck in snow and we hoped it wouldn’t happen to these two.

Shoveling Elk Tongue cabin roof.

We did finally make it back to Elk Tongue cabin just before dark only to realize that the amount of snow on the roof was causing the porch rafters to bow beneath the weight. We didn’t feel safe entering the cabin so we found an old wooden ladder buried behind the cabin, climbed up on the roof, and shoveled all the snow off. After the ski and the shoveling, we were exhausted! Time for a nice wood fire, dinner, and bed.

Departing in the fog.

The next morning was very foggy as we departed for the trailhead.  It was hard to see the trail or any distinguishing landscape characteristics…trees would emerge out of the mist, the snow blended into the horizon, and we kept an eye on each other just to find our way. Eventually the fog lifted and the sun appeared lighting up the snow covered mountains to the east. We enjoyed the last of our solitude before getting back to our truck at the trailhead and realized how fortunate we are to be able to pursue our wildlife interests in such a beautiful part of the world.

The fog was lifting and Lisa leading the way!

Leaving behind the Slough Creek drainage.