This type of gallery is among my favorites, featuring landscapes across the US with a bit of car content. And as with many of these, I try to keep the scenery varied; from lakes to beaches and deserts. Talking about the latter, we open with an image from the Arches National Park in Utah, dating from 1972.
The images are once again from the National Archives and are part of the Documerica project. They’ve been slightly color-corrected for this post.
13-Mile Woods, New Hampshire, 1973.
West Virginia Turnpike North of Beckley, 1974.
Arches National Park, Utah, 1972.
Glen Highway toward Mount Drum, Alaska, 1974.
Near Page, Arizona, circa 1972.
Canyonlands National Park, Utah, 1972.
Vaca Keys, Florida, circa 1975.
Related CC reading:
More Vintage Snapshot Galleries Here
I’m pretty sure the Canyonlands photo with the red pickup is the Shafer Trail. The NPS recommends a 4wd vehicle with low range for this road, at least the descent. I’ve been down it on a motorcycle, definitely using 1st gear in spots, and in my truck though I doubt I used low range then. And I’ve been up it on my bicycle, lowest gear plus a few rest and recovery spots. Here’s a photo of earlier times on the Shafer Trail from the Park Service website, taken in the mid-1960’s before it was graded better.
The Canyonlands photo is fantastic. The first photo of the Garden of the Gods in Manitou Springs Colorado with the 1967 Ford sedan was the set-up my family used traveling in Colorado. We had an peach-orange Bethany Chief pop-up camper and a cabin tent for the family. This is a small family.
I traveled all over the US in cars built during this decade and look back in disbelief at the poor quality rides of that age. It wasn’t until the 1980s that cars became driver focused and handled similar to cars today.
BTW – that Capri was a nice car, so there were exceptions.
Can you imagine the Glen Road in Alaska in the middle of winter. That may account for it being so wide to accommodate those skidding off to the road during a winter storm.
My wife and I have traveled extensively in northern BC, the Yukon, and Alaska. The shoulders are cut wide on purpose for the wildlife. Much easier to see especially the bear and moose and whatever else wants to cross the road.
I’m sure the type of antifreeze used in the 70’s was superior to who was available in the 50’s and 60’s. However, I’d still have a gallon jug or two of water in the trunk if I ever drove Canyonlands National Park as in the photo.
For some reason my photo attachment for the Canyonlands Shafer Trail comment above didn’t work. Let’s try again.
That could be me in my ’63 beetle on some of the jeep trails I took it on in the Rockies. I remember vividly some raised eyebrows I generated among a group of hard core 4×4 drivers.
Cool to see these old school telephone poles and wires on that picture of Glen Highway.
“Glen Campbell”, tune playing in my head…
I like that Capri with the American headlights.
Those were some “fun to drive”, poorly put together rides,
Thank you again .
-Nate
The pre-SUV/4WD era is fun to look back upon. I wouldn’t have been as brave as the Canyonlands driver, but I can drop myself into any of these scenes pretty easily.
Also: for most any vehicle seen, I have (well, had) the skills to do a lot of the maintenance and tune-up stuff (before pollution hoses really started crowding the engines)……times change!
Thank you for this great gallery. I’ve been to all our beautiful national parks in the western US. In 1977 my brother and I took to the highways in our 1969 Mustang Mach I. We had so much fun we decided back then we would keep traveling until we covered every national park and monument. I’m sure the Mach I enjoyed it as much as we did. For 3 weeks every October we would cover the western US until we covered every one of them. Going that late in the year provided us with every type of weather conditions. Living in Southern California we of course had very limited experience driving in snow and ice, but we learned how to do it out there in Utah, Wyoming, Montana Idaho and Nevada. Our only experiences before this were our trips to Mammoth Mountain for ski trips. The Mach l never missed a beat. Sometimes that 351Windsor would run non-stop for 18 to 20 hours a day for 3 weeks Sometimes only stopping for gas
The Mach l never failed us in any way
We did very detail maintenance in the garage at home so it was always road ready. There was only one thing that the Mach I didn’t do well with were the mountain roads covered by snow and ice.
Part 2 of 2. When driving on icy mountain roads, if the road was banked in curves, since the heaviest part of te car was the engine. If the bank was steep enough the front end would break lose and would slide down the bank and head towards the cliff at the side of the road. The back of the Mach was so light, the wheels would just spin. In the following years we would rent motorhomes until we could afford to buy one. So we bought a brand new 33 foot Southwind class A motorhome. That changed everything. We had so much fun, we knew at the time we could never beat that fun. Then times got tough and we had to sell the Southwind, but I vowed to get another motorhome in the future. Well the time has come, I can’t wait to find another motorhome, but this time it will be a smaller Class C. Once I do, I will get right back out there.
cool shot of the schaefer trail. my first time on that road was in the spring of 1971 (been back a dozen times) driving a 1965 oldsmobile vista cruiser station wagon, bad shocks and “soft” steering. the cliffs portion wasn’t too bad but the flatter sections around the gypsum ponds over the slickrock got a little dicey. no dirt or pavement, lots of busted up slickrock. got to the top no problems and saw a sign saying nps recommends 4 wheel high clearance for the trail. and there sat my vista cruiser about six inches off the ground, the sun roof and side roof windows glistening in the springtime utah sunshine. the last time I drove it was in 2017 in my 4runner. not the same. sure miss my vista.