The "Nature" Trail

Eventually the snowy trails we had been following met back up with the well-traveled and therefore ice-packed "nature trail." The friendly visitors' center staff had told us we would see some animals on this trail out in the open air, which seemed a bit odd. Well, it turns out the National Park nature trail is more or less a zoo. The animals do have large enclosures, and are all local (or close enough - there were no giraffes, at least). We saw wild boars, wolves, and owls, and might have seen bears and elk if the season were right or if we had really spent much time looking. The worst part was that the trail was made more visitor-friendly by installing stairs on the inclines, which are not so easy in snowshoes - we mostly hopped off the trail to go overland beside the stairs when it was possible, but it wasn't always an option.

In any case, the park was very pretty and well maintained, but definitely a little less focused on outdoor recreation than what we would expect from our National Parks back home.