In a very remote location with a limited satellite internet connection so no photos today.   The drive up to Summit Lake, the highest point on the Alaskan Highway, was wet and stormy and very hard for photography.  Road work, RVs, Motorhomes, and oilfield frackers made it a very hard day.

I made this trip in the late 80’s and things are very different today.  It’s congested with industry, and fracking crews.  It reminds me of depression era WPA and CCC camps.  The only thing missing is Woody Guthrie, poverty, and hunger. New pickup trucks fill the work camp parking lots, reward for migratory work.

Boomtowns spring up around the fracking sites, towns that will dry up and litter the highway when the crude is gone.  The Alaskan Highway will bear the scars long after the oil is gone.  Those who financed their dream in and around these boomtowns will go broke long before their 30 year mortgages are up.  This is a 21st century “Grapes of Wraith”, dirty oil replacing the grapes of old.

As I write this I drove by a sign that reads, “Danger, poisonous gas”.  All around the open wound in the earth from fracking you see nothing but dead trees.  A little further down the road fires sweep across the landscape.  Fires caused by gas blow outs and carelessness.  You have to ask yourself, is it worth it?  How long can we hide this from the public?