My buddy in Utah found this and took these shots out on one of his adventure bike rides. My guess is a range feeder that was not collected in the fall and froze or starved to death. seems it was trying to seek shelter in the tree.
this guy is a mad man on his bikes. once did a 24 hour nonstop solo ride from here in the foothills to points north touching both nevada and oregon. hit a small deer up here before he left for Utah on his BMW GS adventure that totaled the bike and nearly him.