Horseshoe Lake Trail

Once again, I'm late in putting this up.  I actually did this hike last Friday after work, since it's only five miles or so round trip from where I live.

The lake itself is an old bend of the Nenana River, and as the crow flies, it's only a few hundred yards from where I live.  The Nenana is wide and fast-flowing though, so the only way to get there is to go into the park via the main pedestrian bridge and then hike down to the lake.  That also involves going up about 400 feet in elevation and then back down, so that you descend almost in a counterclockwise loop around the lake itself.

Once you get down, the path is at most a foot above the waterline.  And since it's in a fairly protected valley, the surface is very glassy and reflects the hillside and sky above it.

The real reason to do this hike, however, is to see the wildlife that live in and around Horseshoe Lake.  There is a beaver dam (actually a set of three) at the outlet, and moose are fairly commonly seen in the area.  This hike is the one where I saw my first moose, although in that case it was actually on the railroad tracks close to the trailhead rather than at the lake itself.

The upper two beaver dams.

I did see a beaver down at the lake though.  It went all the way over the triple dams and down the stream that leads into the Nenana, and swam within a few feet of us at one point.  Like a lot of the animals here, the beaver got much closer to humans than you would expect to see in most other places.  That's why you see moose and caribou just a few feet from roads and buildings even in traffic or when large numbers of people are nearby.

Grizzly count (current): 1
Moose count: 5

Sunset tonight: 11:59 PM.  After tonight, the sun will be up at midnight for the next six weeks (it will set later, but the sun is actually at its lowest point around 2:00 AM here.