Scenic Alaska: highways and byways provide more than beauty to state. The Parks Highway Scenic Byway currently runs from Talkeetna to Healy. The organization has applied to also have the northern portion designated as a National Scenic Byway that would extend the federal designation from Healy to Fairbanks.

• Author: Bohi, Heidi
• Position: TOURISM

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Nothing is so mesmerizing as an expanse of Alaska highway that unfolds and unwinds in every direction, teasing you mile after mile and at each bend in the road. It keeps every promise to give you one more peak or peek, and then another, before unveiling a panoramic view of a crystal blue alpine glacier creeping down the side of a mountain, a network of braided rivers, or Mount McKinley towering over the mystic Alaska Range.

When I drove the Seward Highway for the first time 20 years ago, in just the short expanse from Anchorage to Girdwood, I shot two rolls of film, feverishly snapping photos of Chugach Range peaks, Turnagain Ann tides, waterfalls and small groups of white Dall sheep dancing up the steep rock faces on the side of the road.

I was certain this was a once-in-a-life-time happenstance I was documenting. What I didn't know then: every day on the Seward Highway is Mother Nature's souvenir shop where you can take home as much as you can fit in your scrapbook of memories. Then the road was simply another Sunday drive and a means of getting from point A to point B for instate travelers and visitors, but this scenic and natural beauty are two reasons the Seward Highway is now one of Alaska's most well-known nationally designated scenic byways.

TWELVE SCENIC BYWAYS IN ALASKA

Today, the 127-mile Seward Highway is one of 12 Alaska Scenic Byways--a State recognition--and also has the unique distinction of being the only road in Alaska holding a triple honorary designation. It is also a U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service Scenic Byway and an All-American Road, which means federal funding is available to market it as an attraction and a destination. The state's other scenic byways include all or portions of the Alaska Marine, Alaska Railroad, Dalton, Glenn, Haines, Parks, Richardson, Steese, Sterling, Taylor and Top of the World highways.

Congress established the national program in 1991 to preserve and protect the nation's scenic but often less-traveled roads and to promote tourism and economic development along these corridors. A National Scenic Byway is a road recognized by the Federal Highway Administration (FHA) of the U.S. Department of Transportation for six qualities: archeological, cultural, historic, natural, recreational and scenic. Once a community or region proves a road has met the prerequisite qualities and the highway or byway is approved at the state level, they can decide later to apply for...