Spotting and Identifying Easter Eggs in the new Subaru Forester

The Subaru Forester has a long reputation for being used by people who actually do the outdoor activities shown in SUV commercials. There might not be Foresters traversing the Rubicon trail, but its owners often use them to head down trails for tent camping, mountain biking, hiking, and other weekend activities beyond a trip to Home Depot in the morning and a restaurant at night. The Forester commemorates this love of the outdoors by putting subtle outdoor-themed graphics in several locations throughout the Forester cabin. This post from Ewing Subaru of Plano can help you find and identify.

These images are often called “Easter Eggs” because of the subtle sense of delight they invoke when discovered and/or identified. The Drive.com noticed several of these Easter eggs and contacted Aaron Cole, a former The Drive editor who now works for Subaru, to find out the story behind what they found.  

The most easily seen of these easter eggs may be the least identifiable. All of the accessories for protecting parts of the interior, such as all-weather floor mats, cargo area liners, as well as the scuff protectors for the front and rear door panels, may appear to be just a random collection of oblong ovals and swirly lines but are depictions of the topographical maps of various national parks. Subaru, of course, has a long-standing partnership with the National Parks Foundation as part of the Subaru Love Promise, having donated millions of dollars and sponsoring programs to help clean, maintain, and protect the parks, as well as planting trees in areas devastated by wildfire.  

As a specific example, the lines on the front all-weather floor maps represent the Olympic National Park in Washington State. In contrast, the rear mats represent the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina/Tennessee. Cargo area accessories, including the cargo tray, rear seatback protectors, and side protectors, all combine to form one big topographical map of Cuyahoga National Park in Ohio. Brandywine Falls, a popular attraction of that park, is marked with a four-pointed star recognizable from the Subaru logo. 

National parks from all parts of the country are represented somewhere in the vehicle. But it isn’t just about them. Elsewhere, you can spot: 

• Hummingbird – In a corner of almost every window and the sunroof.  
• Hiking boot prints– Front door panels 
• Paw prints – Rear door panels 
• Mountain range – Near the door trim 
• Telescope – Passenger side wheel well in the cargo area 
• Camp Lantern – driver-side wheel well in the cargo area 
• Compass Pointer – Inner hatch panel 

Subaru isn’t alone in doing this. Jeep puts little images of its original WWII and the brand-iconic front design, represented by seven vertical lines with a round headlight on either side, in obscure places of its models. The Hummer EV models have moon topography on their speaker grids.  

We welcome you to visit Ewing Subaru of Plano to test drive one of our vast inventory of  Foresters and even conduct your own little easter egg hunt as you look it over.