Day 12 continued!

 After our decent from Hatcher Pass and on into Willow, we attempted to locate the Dr. Seuss House! It was on Kim's bucket list and we were hoping to surprise her with a glimpse of it. Some "googling"  gave us the coordinates and we were able to cross the Little Susitina River and  on down the dirt road..we came to no trespassing signs before we got to where we wanted to be. In our younger day that probably wouldn't have stopped us but we did not go any further. We were surprised that we couldn't see it if it is indeed 12 stories high from somewhere on the Hatcher Pass Road across the river. Sorry Kim!                 
 We stopped for lunch at Mary's McKinley View Lodge north of Trapper Creek on the Parks Highway.  I first heard of this place from a patron at the Old Forge Library last winter. Jeff Butcher who is from the Rome NY area, spent many years going to school and working in Alaska. He still works up there in the summer and works in the Old Forge area in the winter. He had worked the last few summers at Mary's McKinley View Lodge and told me some of the history of the place.
  Alaska legend Mary Carey came to this area as a widow in the early 1960's and homesteaded 100 miles from the nearest road at a spot with the best view of McKinley she had ever seen. Mary was a teacher, news reporter and writer and homesteaded alone in a fly-in area that is now Denali State Park. She founded a one-teacher high school in a remote area that is now Talkeetna. Friends with the famous bush pilot Don Sheldon, she constantly advocated the building of the  Parks Highway. (The Park's Highway  which mostly parallels the Alaska Railroad, is one of the most important roads in Alaska. It is the main route between Anchorage and Fairbanks, Alaska's two largest metropolitan areas, the principal access to Denali National Park and Preserve and Denali State Park, and the main highway in the Matanuska-Susitna Valley.)


When she wrote to then-governor Bill Egan about the project, he famously replied that, “Alaska already has two roads, how many do you want in one state?”  In 1973 The year the Park's Highway came past her property, she started a small business selling to the road construction crews which later expanded to a lodge, gift shop and restaurant. The business is still run by her family.  We had a nice lunch, visited with Mary's daughter, Jeanne Richardson in the gift shop, (She said Jeff was not working here this summer but was over working by Chicken AK) Jeanne also mentioned that they, as well as surrounding neighbors, were looking forward to finally being put on the grid sometime this season. (Currently electricity stops at Milepost 121 and the Lodge is at milepost 134!) They have always needed to use a generator to run everything and it usually costs  about $6000 a month for fuel to run it. Kim and I enjoyed the spectacular views from the dining room, (Mary had always maintained that the best view of McKinley was her view from the south and they put the park entrance on the wrong side!)   while Mike and Terry were busy checking out an old piece of equipment. Yup, they are gear-heads! 

We were still about 100 miles away from Denali Wilderness Access Center. We hope to pick up our tickets for tomorrow's bus excursion before they close to avoid waiting in line in the morning.  It was going to be close but Terry got us there with 10 minutes to spare. And we were treated to Kim's famous airport walk between the parking lot and the Center!

                                                         Next stop Otto Lake! 
                               
                               

 We had rented a cabin at Otto Lake for 2 nights. Otto Lake is 10 miles north of the park entrance and at the base of Mt Healy. The weather had gotten quite a bit colder but it didn't take long for the cabin to warm up. The couple in the cabin next to us were from Palmyra, NY (Kim's brother John lives there!) and were freezing from all the cold and rain on their trip into Denali that day. (Our weather on the trip up had been pretty nice but the Mountains are so high in this area that they  form their own weather, with sudden showers emerging in some valleys while others remain dry or even sunny.)  And they were going to be in Inlet, NY the following weekend for One Square Mile of Hope Kayak and Canoe Flotilla in support of Breast Cancer! Small world!  The couple on the other side of us were from Willsboro in the Adirondacks. Smaller world!  Mike and Terry went off to fish from the dock. Terry caught 2 and Mike caught one Dolly Varden ( or Dolly Partons as Terry called them)  We had a nice campfire. The setting reminded us of the Adirondacks ..but the mountains were so much bigger!!