Text provided by Patrick Bell
Greetings to all and Happy New Year. The holidays are about over, the new year has dawned, and the winter doldrums are about to commence. So let’s take a breather today and look at some fair weather sightseeing and traveling images.
Our lede image is Steamboat Rock in Garden of the Gods Park in Colorado Springs, Colorado. It looks like a warm summer day in 1959. On the left is a white over maroon car that had me stumped –but thanks to some readers yesterday we know it’s a Dodge Wayfairer coupe with what look to be Buick taillights. It has a ’59 Colorado plate issued in El Paso County, where this park is located. Ahead of it is a coral over white ’56 Pontiac Star Chief 2 door Catalina, and a black ’59 Chevrolet sedan. Coming back on the right side is a white over dark blue ’57 Chevrolet wagon with some in-process bodywork on the tailgate. Next is a white over black ’53 Chevrolet Two-Ten or Bel Air sedan, tan V8 powered ’57 Chevrolet 2 door sedan, white ’56 Chevrolet 4 door wagon, clean black ’58 Ford Fairlane 500 Club Victoria, and a dirty blue and white ’58 Chevrolet Brookwood wagon with a V8.
A roadside rest stop in the desert somewhere in a ’54 Ford Customline Tudor Sedan or possibly a Fordor with a California plate used between ’56 and ’62. It has a V8, a Desert Water Bag attached, an extended mirror on the left side, and a wide mirror clamped on the stock inside unit. There appear to be two other passengers inside, a youngster standing behind the steering wheel, and a figure in the back seat. Dad is likely the photographer.
Traveling through Zion NP in Utah on a clear day in a ’51 Chevrolet Bel Air with a Powerglide and a ’51 Utah plate. Look at the oil stains on the highway. Add some light rain for a slippery situation.
A roadside stop with Mt. Rainier in the background on a beautiful, clear day in a loaded down, V8 powered ’56 Plymouth Belvedere 4 door sedan with some fender eyebrow rust. The plate may be from California but I can’t tell for sure. There is one passenger in the back seat and likely more are out playing in the leftover snow.
Tourists enjoying the view at Niagara Falls. I see they did not park between the lines any better than they do today. The cars are all GM products and are lined up chronologically from left to right starting with a black ’48 Pontiac Torpedo 4 door sedan, black over grey ’54 Buick Special 4 door sedan, sharp looking white over copper V8 powered ’57 Chevrolet Bel Air Sport Sedan, and a white over green ’58 Buick Special 4 door sedan.
Sequoia National Park in California where you can drive through a tunnel in a log. This one is a ’59 Ford Ranch Wagon or Country Sedan with a roof rack, an extra wide clamp on the inside mirror and a California plate.
A lady smiling for the camera and leaning on a ’55 Buick Special or Century 4 door Riviera while sightseeing at Hoover Dam in Nevada. In front of it is a ’56 DeSoto FireFlite 2 door Sportsman, and behind is a ’59 Plymouth Custom Suburban 4 door wagon. Across the road is a sweet looking red ’64 Chevrolet Corvair Monza Coupe, blue ’64 Plymouth Sport Fury hardtop, further up looks like a white ’64 Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu Sport Coupe, skip one, a dirty white or tan ’61 or ’62 Thunderbird, and a white ’54 Cadillac.
Two travelers stopped for a photo opportunity in Gunnison NP, CO. First we have a ’60 Buick LeSabre 4 door hardtop with a loaded roof rack and possibly a ’68 Illinois plate. Following is a ’63 Ford Galaxie 500 4 door sedan.
Overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco in a V8 powered ’61 Chevrolet Bel Air 4 door sedan with a California plate and a ’55 Dodge Coronet or Royal 4 door nearby.
Mom is the photographer as her family poses with their clean ’60 Chevrolet Parkwood wagon with California plates.
Everyone is standing back for some reason. A ’68 Cadillac towing a fair sized Airstream Travel Trailer. Full size cars with a big V8 made good tow rigs back in the day.
It looks like someone is debating whether they want to drive their ’64 Oldsmobile F-85 Deluxe wagon across the low water crossing. The F-85 is missing the ‘OLDSMOBILE’ lettering on the tailgate and has a California plate.
Nice selection! It’s fun to see the rear end styling evolution from the ‘59 Chevy to 1961. 1960 just doesn’t work for me. The Tunnel Log in Sequoia NP looks unchanged over decades, down to the sign. Here we are back in 2013.
My fantasy garage has a ‘59 Impala with a ‘60 front clip. Something about those huge eyebrows on the ‘59 puts me off. I’m a sucker for large, expressive taillights, so I’m with you on the ‘60 redesign.
I prefer the ’60 Chevys to the batwing ’59 – Chevrolet was stuck with the ’59 hardpoints but managed to de-emphasize the batwings by squaring them off, returning to double or triple round taillamps rather than the odd cat’s eyes, and simplifying the grille for a more ’60s appearance. Against all this toning-down was the chrome jet plane emblazoned on the rear flanks. The ’61 vastly simplified the shape, particularly at the rear with the huge horizontal fins gone.
Being a ‘61 model myself, that maroon ‘61 Bel Air overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge is quite appealing.
My favorite model year and the color is beautiful!
Couple a day’s shy of being a “61”, model. I like the “62”, big “Chevy’s”. (and “66”)
It’s funny, for years it was the ’59 for me but more recently it has to be the ’61.
I know that parking lot on the Marin side of the GG Bridge. It is paved now and have a similar shot from a slightly higher vantage point at the back of the parking area. Circa the early 90’s. Pretty much all cars.
Patrick, it’s great to read your commentary here with the pictures!
This is a terrific set of photos – I recognize some of them (like the Cadillac/Airstream combination) from other CC snapshot collections. They’re outstanding pictures.
One thing I enjoy seeing with photos of tourist attractions is where the various cars are from. The Chevy Wagon in the Garden of the Gods photo, for instance, looks like it’s from Pennsylvania. That’s quite a road trip for 1958!
That “Garden of God’s” pic, from yesterday ((widened out))
The “58 Ford” must be about ‘brand spanking new”!
Shows the size of the stones, relative to cars/people too.
Got to read up on that attraction now it’s made the posts on two consecutive days.
Thanks Eric, I’m honored to be an official part of the family. You know, I had the same thought about that Pennsylvania plate, only the thought did not stick around long enough for me to get it keyed in… So it goes…
I was there in 1971 from Pennsylvania on a road trip with my mother and brother. We still had our ’67 Chevy Bel Air 2-door sedan at the time.
In a weird sort of CC Effect, I came into my office after the holiday with two calendars given to me by my neighborhood mechanic… one with muscle cars and the other with classics.
When I turned the page on the latter, the picture was of a ’54 Ford. I took a guess that was what it was before I looked at the caption to confirm it, not really being familiar with that year’s Ford….
Enter this entry… what’s the second picture? A ’54 Ford. Go figure.
Ironically, the muscle car calendar featured a ’71 Torino, which was just (re)posted the other day here.
The CC Effect™ is real (unless it’s just confirmation bias). 😉
The “Hoover Dam”, pic reminds me; always thought I’d like to visit there. The red “Corvair” is a “looker”!
That loaded down ’56 Plymouth Belvedere in photo #4 looks like it could use a Rainier Beer. Or should I say “Raaayyyy-Neeeear-Beeeeer.”
If you get a chance, check out “Rainier: A Beer Odyssey” (2024). We saw it in November and it was great. According to IMDB it is “a documentary on the iconic, groundbreaking Rainier Beer TV commercials, which ran from 1974 to 1987.”
Perfect for Pacific Northwesterners and Left Coasters of a certain age.
Very good detailed information on every pic about every car. Beautiful scenery in these pictures.
Great images as always Rich. So much character in these photos. 1950’s flamboyance on full display.
Love that oil-stained highway (pic#3). With the blind hills and curves. And faded centre line. Roads in this condition, disappeared here in Ontario by the 1970s. Replaced with modern-engineered highways.
During the pandemic, I did some genealogy research for friends. Looking through small town newspapers from the 1930’s through 1950’s, I’d spot news articles on fatal head-on collisions, on roads like this. Drivers speeding, not keeping right on curves, or hills. Drunk driving. Even in the remote countryside, careless driving seemed a risk.
As always, wonderful memory invoking photos .
Those black stripes of oil droplets flung off as cars careened ’round tight corners is a thing again on the Angeles Crest Highway ~ I rode up in December 31st. and was amazed and disheartened to see this as I like to ride my Moto there briskly, not anymore, so much carnage (a Maserati was totaled last week) it’s like the old, not really good days again .
FWIW, I always wanted to visit Hoover Dam too and they used to have deep down inside tours, now you can’t even drive over the top of it thanx to you-know-who .
-Nate
“Those black stripes of oil droplets flung off as cars careened ’round tight corners…”
Ehhh. Most of that is due to the hateful “road-draft tubes” used for crankcase ventilation in the pre-PCV era. Yes, there was more oil leakage back then, but you’d see those dark stripes on all roads, not just on corners.
Those dark stripes in the center of the lanes faded-out as cars with draft tubes were replaced by cars with PCV systems.
Growing up in Vegas, I noticed this about Hoover dam shot. Look at the water line behind the Corvair. YOU CAN SEE IT.
I was there in 1984 when the spillway were opened up. Too much water!!
Body by Fisher screams. ‘57 Chevy HT parked next to ‘57 Pontiac HT. I grew up in the ‘50s thru early ‘70s. A Chevy family. First car was a used ‘68 Impala 2-door fastback. Then in 1971, a Chevy 307 Malibu 2-door HT with black roof cover. Only regret was not buying a used ‘70 Chevelle SS.
My wife and I visited Niagara Falls this past April. It’s interesting that the iron and stone fence on the Ontario side is the same as shown in the photo above. The iron portion has a good deal of rust now.
I guess maybe a Dodge Wayfarer, with a short wheelbase and therefore a lightweight chassis, might be a good candidate for customization at that time, maybe it was possible to fit a later V-8 into the engine bay. I guess if one went to that trouble it might make sense to replace the plain Dodge taillights with something a bit more sporty as in this photo.
Thanks for the photos!
It struck me as being a weird choice of car to do up. Never saw one in a magazine. But your reasoning makes good sense.
Grew up in Southern California. Every summer my folks, my brothers and I would load the camper onto our’54 Chevrolet pickup, get it loaded up and take off to visit family in Western Kansas. We drove Route 66 east until we needed to turn north to get to our destination. We naturally would stop at various points along the way. These pictures remind me of those trips.
Family, the pickup, the highway are all long gone but now in my’70’s I have some terrific memories.
Thank you for posting these pictures.
Is it just me or does the tunnel log in Sequoia National Park look like a fender and wheel well?
Cadillac towing Airstream is classic high buck camping. Same year Suburban with 396/TH400 combo might tow slightly better, but a less comfortable travel experience.
I’m struck by the total absence of imported cars. Then again my family didn’t start with imports until the late 60s and we lived in the NYC area.
I’m also noticing a lack of trucks compared to a modern parking lot. Even station wagons are rare in these shots. I wonder if the shift to electric cars will move us back to sedans and hatchbacks and whether charging station snapshots will be as common asv gas station snapshots