Unit 70

Buffalo Plateau anchors the northern high country and serves as an excellent vantage for orientation. The string of named meadows—North Fork, Nowlin, Pendergraft, Turpin—form important navigation waypoints and concentrate elk, especially during early seasons. Gravel Peak and Joy Peak provide glassing prominence on the eastern slopes.

The major drainages—North and South Buffalo Fork creeks, Plateau Creek, Clear Creek—serve as natural travel corridors and water indicators. Fox Park Flat marks the Yellowstone boundary transition point and doubles as a terrain reference.

This is genuine high-country terrain, with elevations spanning from upper-foothills to alpine, centered around 8,700 feet. The landscape transitions from timbered slopes at lower elevations to open ridges and meadow systems as you climb. Moderate forest coverage—a mix of lodgepole, whitebark pine, and spruce-fir—creates the classic Rocky Mountain patchwork of timber stands broken by parks and meadows.

Buffalo Plateau dominates the northern portion, while rolling ridges throughout create natural elevation changes that guide both terrain travel and elk movement.

Fair access means this unit avoids highway crowds but isn't remote. Pacific Creek Road and the Pacific Creek Trail provide the main funnel for hunters, creating predictable pressure in the northern sections. Trailhead parking limits vehicle congestion, forcing most hunters to foot-travel into the country.

The rolling terrain and size create significant off-trail opportunity—hunters willing to leave the main trails find solitude quickly. Road density supports some vehicle spotting from Highway 26-287, but most serious hunting requires leaving the road system entirely.

Unit 70 occupies the high country wedged between Yellowstone National Park to the north and Grand Teton National Park to the southwest, with Bridger-Teton National Forest dominating the unit. The Buffalo Fork River marks the western boundary near Highway 26-287, while the Continental Divide forms the eastern limit. Togwotee Pass anchors the southeastern corner where the highway crosses through.

This positioning places the unit squarely in premium elk migration corridors between the two parks, making it a logical funnel for seasonal movement.

Despite the 'limited' water badge, this unit holds reliable water sources tied to elevation and snowmelt. North and South Buffalo Fork creeks flow year-round through the western valleys. High-elevation lakes including Gravel, Lost, Ferry, and Tracy lakes persist throughout the season at higher elevations.

Big Springs and Soda Springs provide reliable seepage water on the plateaus. Seasonal streams in the major drainages—Weasel, Trail, Soda Fork, Clear Creek—flow reliably through mid-season but may become intermittent by late summer. Above-treeline snow lingers into July, creating early-season water availability.

Elk are the primary focus here, and the terrain supports good populations. Early season finds elk in high meadow systems—Turpin, Pendergraft, Nowlin—where you can glass from ridges at dawn and hunt the transition zones. Mid-season patterns are unpredictable given park proximity; animals shift between summer range in Yellowstone and fall migration corridors.

Rut hunting concentrates along the main drainages where elk funnel. Late season pushes animals into lower timber on the unit's western and southern edges as snow accumulates above treeline. Navigation difficulty (7.1 complexity) rewards hunters with map and compass skills who can work off-trail ridgelines and access secondary meadows most traffic misses.