Today was an absolutely amazing day in Denali! We hiked three different trails that were beautiful and saw a female moose with her calf in a lake, a beaver dam and a beaver swimming and some gorgeous sites.  Plus, it was a gorgeous day and we hiked 7.3 miles!!

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Moose eat from the bottom of ponds.

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(moose) calf

 

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impressive beaver dam

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A beaver swimming in the lake.  Interesting fact:  the beavers spend the summer here cutting down trees and burying all the branches at the bottom of the lake below their dam.  In the winter the lake is frozen solid and they have no way to get out, so they feed off the wood they buried at the bottom.

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We hiked hundreds of steps to climb back up after hiking around the lake on the Horseshoe Lake Trail (of course we walked down them to start the hike!)

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Here’s where we started our hike on the Savage Alpine Trail

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Looking down on the parking lot from the Savage Alpine Trail

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Path on the Savage River Loop

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Tom is that speck on top of the hill.

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This is me from the bottom of the hill.

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This is the INSIDE of a bathroom door.  Heavily reenforced to keep the bears out!

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Look who came to dinner!  This cow and calf moose were right outside our camper door for HOURS!

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