Personal: Parks Highway, Alaska

The George Parks Highway (numbered Alaska Route 3) runs 323 miles from the Glenn Highway, 5 miles south of Wasilla, to Fairbanks in the Alaska interior. Referred to by locals simply as the Parks Highway, it is one of the most vital roads in Alaska. Running parallel to the Alaska Railroad, it is the main route between Anchorage and Fairbanks (Alaska's two largest metropolitan areas), and it provides the main access road to Denali National Park.

During the summer of 2008, I spent many hours driving along this route while shooting various projects throughout the interior of Alaska. I was often struck by the ocean-like vastness of the landscape that this highway cuts through and the eclectic array of objects I saw along the side of the road evoked an image of flotsam and jetsam washed up on the shore of this immense wilderness.