12 Vintage National Park Posters That’ll Make You Want to Hit the Road This National Park Week
Celebrate National Park Week with a nostalgic journey through 12 stunning vintage posters that capture the wild beauty, epic landscapes, and timeless spirit of America’s greatest natural treasures.
- Alyana Aguja
- 4 min read
National Park Week is the ideal occasion to revisit the enchantment of America’s untamed spaces via the eyes of classic travel posters. These 12 classic masterpieces, commissioned to stoke adventure at the dawn of the 20th century, are now reposing in their grandeur, intrigue, and allure of Yosemite through Acadia. In bold, unchanging color and enduring elegance, each of these posters begs you to set out on the open road to explore the spaces that have moved generations to roam.
1. Grand Canyon National Park (1938 WPA Poster)
Image from Wikimedia Commons
This WPA-era poster, in bold black lines and muted earth colors, captures the raw, sculptural beauty of the Grand Canyon’s tiered cliffs. The Colorado River snakes like a ribbon along the canyon floor, tempting you to envision rafting through time. It’s a celebration of nature’s raw, sculptural artistry.
2. Yellowstone National Park – “See America” Series
Image from Aaron Perry-Zucker
This “See America” campaign poster shows a steaming geyser shooting into a deep indigo and golden sunset-colored sky. Yellowstone, the world’s first national park, is portrayed as a surreal geothermal wonderland. It’s a reminder that this park was one of the sparks that ignited the conservation movement.
3. Yosemite National Park (WPA, 1930s)
Image from Modern Bungalow
A giant El Capitan rises over the Merced River, drawn in gentle blues and greens in this vintage style. The poster conveys peace and enormity at once—pure Yosemite. You feel as though you can hear the soft thunder of Yosemite Falls offstage.
4. Zion National Park (WPA, 1930s)
Image from National Parks Partnership
Bold reds and creamy whites capture Zion’s famous sandstone cliffs, towering like cathedrals against a cloudless blue. The stylized Virgin River makes a dramatic curve through the landscape. This poster is an invitation to hike Angels Landing or The Narrows.
5. Crater Lake National Park (1938 WPA Poster)
Image from Ranger Doug’s Enterprises
This breathtaking photograph depicts the crystal clear, cobalt-deep waters of Crater Lake encircling Wizard Island in sharp relief. The purity and serenity of the water seem to shine almost from the vintage print. An icy instant of surreal beauty coalesced out of a bursting volcano.
6. Great Smoky Mountains National Park (New Deal Era Poster)
Image from Ranger Doug’s Enterprises
With mist blowing across stacked blue ridges, this poster captures the mystique of the Smokies. A black bear makes its way through the background, a salute to the park’s varied wildlife. It’s an invitation to roam old-growth forests and Appalachian trails.
7. Glacier National Park (Great Northern Railway Poster, 1930s)
Image from eBay
This beautiful poster was designed to entice visitors west by rail. It shows a Native American in traditional attire surveying glacier-hewn peaks. The poster is gorgeous and complicated, reflecting the period’s travel culture and native symbolism. The mountains themselves appear as if they’re painted with intention.
8. Mount Rainier National Park (Northern Pacific Railway Poster, 1920s)
Image from Library of Congress
This early travel poster depicts a lodge that is set in the shadow of the snow-topped grandeur of Mount Rainier. Painted in pastels, it captures the serene beauty of alpine discovery. The layout invites you to “See America First,” an advertising slogan of the golden age of railroad travel.
9. Bryce Canyon National Park (WPA-style Reproduction)
Image from Bryce Canyon Association
This vintage-style poster features a colorful orange amphitheater of hoodoos extending across the page. The color scheme emphasizes Bryce’s surreal beauty. It’s a dreamscape in stone, calling for a sunrise hike through the pillars.
10. Arches National Park (Modern WPA-style Poster)
Image from Amazon.com
Although designed later in WPA style, this poster for Arches is perfectly at home in the classic look. Delicate Arch is placed in a radiance of sunlight, the heart of Utah’s red rock landscape. It seems like you could step into the painting and listen to the desert breeze.
11. Rocky Mountain National Park (WPA Reproduction)
Image from National Park Posters
This poster rejoices in the unbridled essence of Colorado’s alpine wonderland in bold hues and angular silhouettes. Elk feed at the foot of giant peaks against a dramatic sky. It’s a rough-and-romantic tribute to high-country wilderness.
12. Acadia National Park (WPA, 1930s)
Image from Modern Bungalow
This poster shows the Cadillac Mountain looking over the rocky Atlantic coast, bathed in early morning light. Trees ablaze with autumn color enclose the rocky shoreline and an old lighthouse. It’s a New England wilderness moment at its most colorful and blustery.