Location: Dalton Highway, Alaska
Date: 31 September 2002
Camera: Pentax ZX-50
It's an ugly thing, but on the positive side having pipeline access roads makes hiking through the brush easier. In places where a pipeline filled with warm crude oil would melt the permafrost the pipeline is on an above-ground framework. About half of the eight hundred mile long pipeline is above ground, while the rest is visible simply as a road through the tundra. From an engineering standpoint it's an impressive creation, designed to withstand earthquakes and temperatures that dip down to -80 Fahrenheit. But it's still ugly.