National Parks were initially designed with the railroad traveler in mind, making them easily accessible to the public. Into the 1950s, many tourists found these parks to be overcrowded with the increasing numbers of travelers on trains and automobiles. This led to the popularization of National Forests as tourism destinations.

Forest Service roads were not accessible by train, and required an automobile or a dedicated backpacker to access remote portions of the National Forests. Vehicles could access paved roads, dirt roads, and even traverse across rough terrains. The ability to escape into more remote areas of the wilderness created a sense of freedom and privacy for automobile tourists, elevating the overall experience of the outdoors.

Automobile tourism provided increased accessibility to the wilderness, inspiring a revival in the romanticization and overall appreciation of the nation’s wilderness areas. These travelers followed in the footsteps of nineteenth-century nature writers like John Muir and Henry David Thoreau, who wrote about the importance of the environment and the human connection to the natural world; a movement known as romanticism.

This renewed environmental appreciation led to a growing number of American environmentalists, who would advocate for the protection of the aesthetic value of the nation’s wilderness areas during the 1950s and 1960s. Wilderness preservation groups such as the Sierra Club and the Nature Conservancy saw increased membership and activity through lobbying, organizing, rallying and petitioning against civil projects that diminished the natural beauty of wilderness areas.