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Vasquez Rocks – More Than Just a Star Trek Filming Location

Last Modified: August 13, 2023 // by Anda // 2 Comments

Just 45 miles north of Los Angeles , in the Sierra Pelona Mountains, lies California’s most iconic Natural Area Park: the Vasquez Rocks. The Park is famous for its breathtaking rock formations that rise from the ground like whales peeping out from the water. Because of their strange angle, the rocks look almost unnatural, like something from outer space.

Table of Contents

Geological History of the Vasquez Rocks

How did the vasquez rocks get their name, famous rocks trail, vasquez rocks trail, pacific crest trail, vasquez rocks movies, the asher ranch at vasquez rocks, how to get to vasquez rocks, opening times, hotels near vasquez rocks natural area park, a final word.

The Park’s geological history is quite interesting. These dramatic sandstones are basically deposits of crumbled sand and rocks from the nearby San Gabriel Mountains. What we see today is the result of thousands of years of erosion, pressure and precipitations that caused the sand to compress and form flat layers of hard sandstone.

Rock formations at Vasquez Rocks National Area Park

Because the slabs had different densities they eroded at different rates, thus creating a layer effect. As for the rocks’ angled projection, that is due to their location along the San Andreas Fault. The continuous movement of the fault causes the rocks to shift, which in time resulted in their extreme lift.

image depicting Sharply angled stones at Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park

The Vasquez Rocks Natural Park were named after a bandit –Tiburcio Vasquez– who stole horses and robbed stagecoaches in this area, in the 1850s.

image depicting a stagecoach in the Wild West

There are many folk tales about Vasquez and his band of thieves. And like all tales, some are true and some are not. But what’s surely true is that Vasquez used to hide from the sheriff among the jagged rocks that today bear his name.

One story says that Tiburcio Vasquez, who was also a womanizer, had an affair with the wife of one of his lieutenants. The jealous husband shot and wounded Vasquez, but couldn’t kill him. Furious that he failed, the husband informed the lawmen that Vasquez and his men were hiding among the rocks.

Two posses moved in and surrounded the gang in the natural amphitheater, just south of the tallest rock formation. During the attack Vasquez was wounded, but managed to escape to the Mohave Desert. However, the posse caught up with him eventually. Vasquez was tried in a court of law and hanged in 1875.

Even today you can still see traces of the bandits’ fires on certain rocks that form natural fireplaces.

Hiking Trails in Vasquez Rocks National Area Park

Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park is a hiking paradise! The Park spreads over an area of 932 acres, so there are quite a few hiking and horseback riding trails around. Here are some of the most popular ones:

If you are looking for something short, you can enjoy the half-mile Famous Rocks Trail that will take you through the most recognizable rock formations in the park. This trail is mostly flat and doesn’t involve any rock climbing, so it’s ideal for families with young kids.

If you’re not up to the short half mile hike, you can drive down this dirt road to see the most important rock formations.

Climbing the Famous Rocks

If you are looking for something more adventurous, step out of the trail when you reach the parking area at the end of the Famous Rocks Trail. Here you can climb up the slanted rock on the west side of the formation. If you follow the sandstone incline, it will take you to the top of the rocks. Just make sure you wear shoes with good traction as the rocks may be slippery.

Climbing the sandstone incline at Vasquez Rocks National Area Park

You can return the same way you came, which is what we did. Or you can scramble down the east side of the Famous Rocks.

The sandstone incline of the Famous Rocks formation

This is a 2.7-mile loop trail that starts near Agua Dulce. The route is moderately challenging and takes an average of 1 hr 5 min to complete. Vasquez Rocks Trail is popular for both hiking and horseback riding, so expect to encounter many other people while on it.

The Pacific Crest Trail crosses the park and can be connected with a Foot Trail to form a 3.4-mile loop with 325 feet of elevation change. The route is considered moderately challenging and takes about 1 hr 45 min to complete.

The loop passes through impressive sandstone formations from where you can enjoy great views of the park. Keep your eyes open of some interesting petroglyphs (most likely from the Native Americans who inhabited this area).

As you may expect, the striking rock formations pointing at a 45-degree angle made Vasquez Rocks an extremely popular filming location. As a result, the Park was was the setting of countless motion pictures, TV shows, music videos, and video games.

The first movie ever filmed here was Warewolf in London , in 1935, followed by One Million B.C. (1940) and The Ten Commandments , in 1956.

Some of the movies filmed at Vasquez Rocks were The Flintstones , Planet of Apes , Austin Powers , Galaxy Quest , and Cars . But perhaps the most popular of all were the Star Track productions, which included ten television episodes and three movies.

If you stray from the Agua Dulce trail (at the back of the Visitor Center) you may notice the remnants of a stone fireplace at the top of a small knoll. This was once a 300 acres ranch, that even had a swimming pool overlooking the Vasquez Rocks.

The property was acquired by Jefferson Asher, a wealthy Los Angeles industrialist who built here the Asher Ranch, in 1934. The family used the ranch as a summer retreat, but also to raise cattle, pigs and horses. When the pool was built they discovered some old Indian burial sites around it.

In 1970, the Asher family sold the ranch to the county of Los Angeles, thus considerably increasing the size of Vasquez Rocks County Park. They also donated all the artifacts discovered on the site to the Los Angeles County Museum.

In 1971, after the ranch was sold, an earthquaked seriously damaged the house and all the structures around it. The county decided to bulldoze the building for liability purposes, as they feared people may want to climb on its rubble and get hurt.

Unfortunately, when the officials ordered the bulldozing they didn’t realize the pool was resting on an archaeological site that was part of the National Register of Historic Places. As a result, the site was destroyed and only bits and pieces could be salvaged.

Today, the only thing remaining from the Asher Ranch is the stone fireplace and a concrete platform.

Practical Information

It takes less than an hour to get to the Vasquez Rocks from Los Angeles, driving north on the Fwy 5 and east on Highway 14. The address is: 10700 West Escondido Canyon Road, Agua Dulce, CA 91350 .

The Park is open every day of the week, from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The trails are beautiful to hike year-round, except for a few hot days during the summer months. A trail map is available at the Visitor Center which is open Tuesday through Sunday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

I recommend stopping at the Visitor Center first and taking a map. There are many offshoots and foot paths in the Park, so it’s easy to get lost.

Also, the Visitor Center has some good exhibits of the birds and the snakes in this area. And, if you are curious, you can check all the movies that have been filmed in the Park.

No fee or permit is necessary for hiking. Dogs are welcome, but they must be on leash.

As Vasquez Rocks Park is less than an hour from downtown Los Angeles , you can stay in one of the hotels in the city, or stay in other areas of L.A. But is you want to be even closer to the site, you should stay in Santa Clarita. Here are some hotels around this area that you could try:

(8.5 mi) Triplodge of Santa Clarita
(6.4 mi) Soledad Canyon RV & Camping Resort
(8.6 mi) Super 8 by Wyndham Santa Clarita
(10.5 mi) La Quinta Inn by Wyndham/Santa Clarita

rock formations at Vasquez Rock Natural Area Park

Because of its proximity to Los Angeles, the Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park is a very popular weekend getaway for locals and visitors to California as well. So if you are a visitor and have more than just one day in Los Angeles , I encourage you to include this park in your itinerary. Much like Death Valley , which is one of the few National Parks close to L.A ., Vasquez Rocks is a fascinating and unique place that you won’t soon forget.

Reader Interactions

April 6, 2023 at 2:41 am

I went to Vasquez rock last Saturday morning. It is said to be one of the must-see natural attractions in South Bay. The must-see Natural Wonder is also the location of many movies, including StarTrek. It feels like a very suitable place for walking and hiking out of the city. The closest natural beauty outside of Los Angeles. It is less than an hour’s drive from downtown Los Angeles. The park is not big. It consists of several flake rocks that can be climbed. It is very characteristic and many people climb up. If you have less time, you can choose to simply climb directly and take pictures below.

April 6, 2023 at 4:56 pm

You are right, the park is not big which makes it a great day trip from Los Angeles.

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Home > Road Trip Itineraries > West Coast > California Road Trip Itineraries > Southern California Road Trip > Vasquez Rocks: Discover the Rocky Desert Where Star Trek was Filmed!

Vasquez Rocks: Discover the Rocky Desert Where Star Trek was Filmed!

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When you enter Los Angeles , which is a massive city, you can immediately feel the atmosphere of the movie set and may be eager to meet some Hollywood stars on the streets of Burbank or on the Walk of Fame. You may think to yourself, “The movie sets where the American films that made history were shot have never been so close”, as you ride the train through Hollywood Studios on a tour of the most famous scenes of American cinema.

Perhaps not many of you know that not far from Los Angeles, there is another wonderful movie set that has been the setting for many movies, but the difference is that it is a completely “natural” set. It is called Vasquez Rocks and we want to tell you about it in this article.

Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park: A Desert of Rocks…In Motion!

Vasquez rocks: star trek and other movies shot here, vasquez rocks hike: pacific crest trail, useful recommendations, accommodations near vasquez rocks.

The Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park is located north of Los Angeles, in the Sierra Pelona Mountains, near the city of Agua Dulce , no more than 40 minutes from Hollywood. Bikers enjoy its scenery on the nearby Antelope Valley Freeway.

Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park directions

Coming from Los Angeles, you’ll have to drive to Agua Dulce. Simply take I-5 N and drive to the Palmdale/Lancaster junction (Exit State Route 14N/Antelope Valley). From there, continue for 14 miles on CA-14 N. Once in Agua Dulce, you will find the entrance to the valley on Escondido Canyon Road .

There is no entrance fee for Vasquez Rocks Natural Area . However, please note that the park entrance closes at 7:00 pm from March to September and at 5:00 pm for the rest of the year. Camping inside the park is not permitted.

The list of films and TV series is very long, for example, Werewolf of London (1935), but also famous movies like The Flintstones , Planet of Apes , Austin Powers , Planet of Dinosaurs , Cars , and even the popular TV series Big Bang Theory (in the episode titled The Bakersfield Expedition ). Vasquez Rocks will also look familiar to Futurama and Shrek fans.

But what is the origin of the name of this valley Hollywood directors love so much? Long before the cinema, Vasquez Rocks had already been the scene of escapes and hideouts. In 1874, the famous California bandit Tiburcio Vasquez used these rocks to hide when he was running from the law. There is a trail that traces the steps of Vasquez and we will talk about it in a moment.

Length : 5.65 miles
Elevation Gain : 650 feet
Duration : 2-3 hours
Difficulty : Medium

This trail starts near the Visitor Center, where maps are available, as well as a very useful relief map of the whole area that shows the stops on the trail. It is a relatively quick trail that will take you through ridges, hills, rugged desert areas, tunnels, and small canyons. You will be immersed in deep silence as you observe the wonderful and surreal views with beautiful rock formations decorated with ancient petroglyphs.

The trails of Vasquez Rocks are not difficult, but don’t forget to wear suitable clothing and footwear for walking on rocks. There is a water fountain near the visitor center. Make sure you get gas before going to Vasquez Rocks, because you will be entering a desert area.

The Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park can be easily visited in one day during your stay in Los Angeles and is a great way to get out of the city. Here is an article that will help you choose the best area to stay in Los Angeles.

Tips on where to stay in Los Angeles

Warning: Operating hours can change and closures for extraordinary events can occur, so we strongly suggest to check the venues official websites.

Bernardo Pacini

I am an enthusiastic traveler. I have also published some poetry. Besides traveling, my interests include literature, prog music and good food,.

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3 thoughts on “vasquez rocks: discover the rocky desert where star trek was filmed”.

One site I desired to bring to your attention, is the bottle houses near Rhyolite, California. It may be the least explored. And then there are the crawling rocks in what is it, Mojave? Ooppss, then there are the Intaglio lines similar to the Nazca lines of South America.

Hello! We talked about it here .

The Star Trek episode is known informally as “Gorn Home”!

Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park

One the franchise’s most oft-used locales, the 932-acre Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park masqueraded as everything from the mysterious mind-reading planet on The Original Series to a moon on Voyager to Mintaka III on The Next Generation to planet Vulcan in both Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and the 2009 J.J. Abrams-directed Star Trek . Located in the Sierra Pelona Mountains, the otherworldly site, which consists of 150-foot-tall jagged rock formations that jut from the earth at 50-degree angles, was named for Tiburcio Vasquez, an infamous outlaw who pillaged up and down the coast of California during the 1800s and used the rocks as a regular hideout from authorities. The park is one of L.A. County’s most picturesque spots and has become extremely popular with location scouts, playing host to more than 200 shoots each year.

Arguably, Vasquez Rocks’ most memorable Star Trek appearance was as the barren planet where Captain Kirk (William Shatner) famously battles a Gorn in TOS’ Season 1 episode, "Arena." The 2001 comedy Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back paid homage to that episode by setting a scene at the park, complete with a fake café named “Arena Diner” that was installed onsite for the shoot. Vasquez Rocks is open daily from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. and is easily accessible with plenty of parking. The site offers hiking (ranging from easy to difficult), photo-taking opportunities, and fabulous views. The area’s striking rocks are also visible from Escondido Canyon Road and the Antelope Valley Freeway, and were depicted in a driving scene in the 2006 comedy Little Miss Sunshine .

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How Vasquez Rocks, L.A.’s onetime outlaw hideout, became ‘Star Trek’s’ favorite alien landscape

Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park in Southern California has been used as a location on Hollywood productions dating back to the 1920s.

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The mission, from the day “Star Trek” premiered on America’s televisions on Sept. 8, 1966, was ambitious: “to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.”

Where did Gene Roddenberry’s TV series go to find that world?

Often as not, it was a piece of alien-looking geology right here in Southern California — amid the jagged, sandstone boulders of Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park, a Santa Clarita Valley desertscape of prehistoric waves, frozen in time, that has done star turns in Hollywood productions since the 1920s.

It’s where Capt. James T. Kirk famously battled a seemingly indestructible green lizard called a Gorn in the episode titled “Arena,” and it represented planet Capella IV, where Kirk and Dr. McCoy helped an Amazon-like Queen give birth to a warrior prince in “Friday’s Child.”

FULL COVERAGE: The 50th anniversary of ‘Star Trek’ »

“Star Trek” fans can recall Kirk staring in confused wonder as one of the loves of his life, Ruth, inexplicably emerges among the rocks on planet Omicron Delta, ostensibly many light years from Earth, in “Shore Leave.” In the same episode, Kirk engages in a rough-and-tumble brawl around the rocks’ distinctive angles and crevasses with a trouble-making upperclassman who used to taunt him at Star Fleet Academy.

Probably equally important as its otherworldly topography, Vasquez Rocks, just off the Antelope Valley Freeway en route to Palmdale, sit just at the edge of what’s known as the Thirty Mile Zone, a radius around Hollywood in which union actors and technical crew can report for work before pay premiums kick in and jack up the costs of production.

That has made it a favorite location for film and TV directors for decades, going back to Saturday-morning westerns of the 1920s and ’30s — such as “The Texas Ranger” in 1931 and “The Girl and the Bandit” in 1939 — through latter-day productions shot there including the 1994 film version of “The Flintstones” and “The Big Bang Theory.”

Roddenberry and the “Star Trek” family quickly zeroed in on Vasquez Rocks — so named for a late-19th century bandit who used the rocks as his hideout, Tiburcio Vasquez (a name tantalizingly close to Capt. James T. Kirk’s famous middle name, Tiberius).

The area made its series debut during “Star Trek’s” first season in the whimsical “Shore Leave,” about a planet where the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise encounter all sorts of fantastic characters and situations that turn out to be the products of an extraterrestrial amusement park. Call it Deep Space Disneyland.

The appeal of Vasquez Rocks as an alien environment is immediately apparent to anyone who visits the park, just off the Antelope Valley Freeway south of the town of Agua Dulce.

Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park, the site of more than 200 films and television shows, is also a popular hiking spot. It's in the Sierra Pelona Mountains of northern Los Angeles County.

Slabs of rock stretch skyward at steep angles out of the dirt and scrub brush to create dramatic formations seen in more than 200 films and television shows. It’s a production set that took shape 25 million years ago with volcanic activity virtually on top of the San Andreas Fault, at the juncture of the North American and Pacific tectonic plates.

The tallest peak among the Vasquez Rocks juts up 150 feet above the canyon floor, but that’s just the tip of the tip of this rocky berg, which extends an extra 22,000 feet into the earth below.

A large number of people who visit Vasquez Rocks do ask about ‘Star Trek’ — people from all over the world.

— Kaye Michelson, of L.A. County Department of Parks and Recreation

Over the last 50 years, the site has also been used for episodes of the TV series “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” “Star Trek: Voyager” and “Star Trek: Enterprise” as well as the films, including “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country” and J.J. Abrams’ 2009 “Star Trek” reboot, where Vasquez Rocks served as part of the landscape for the planet Vulcan, in homage to the site’s recurring use in the original show.

A modest gift shop in the Vasquez Rocks Park Interpretive Center points to the “Star Trek” connection with a Starfleet Command/United Federation of Planets refrigerator magnet and a selection of tunic insignias for the different service positions (command, science, medical).

“A large number of people who visit Vasquez Rocks do ask about ‘Star Trek’ — people from all over the world,” said Kaye Michelson, acting public information officer for the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation. “The one scene in particular most of them ask about is the scene with Capt. Kirk and the Gorn.”

The location’s history as a backdrop for so many movie and TV westerns — among them “the Lone Ranger,” “Bonanza,” “Gunsmoke,” “Maverick,” “Blazing Saddles,” “The Wild, Wild West” and “Kung Fu” — made it a natural fit as a site for “Star Trek,” which Roddenberry originally pitched to NBC-TV execs as “‘Wagon Train’ to the stars.”

One irony about Vasquez Rocks as a favorite location for westerns is that some 2,500 years ago, it was home to the Tataviam band of Shoshone Indians, who referred to themselves as “People Facing the Sun.” (The last full-blooded Tataviam tribe member, Juan Jose Fustero, died in 1921, about the time the center of the film industry shifted from New York to Hollywood.)

For the 1994 live-action movie "The Flintstones," Vasquez Rocks was transformed into the fictional Stone Age town of Bedrock.

In more recent times, Vasquez Rocks have served as the backdrop in episodes of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Monk” and even “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.” In this year’s Joel and Ethan Coen film “Hail, Caesar!,” a western scene is shot at Vasquez Rocks as a nod to all the cowboy films shot there in the past.

And geek-centric “The Big Bang Theory” chose to film an episode there in homage to the location’s previous use in “Star Trek.”

Vasquez Rocks attract hikers and rock climbers, but also remain highly evocative to “Trek” fans who recall Kirk’s life-and-death battle against the tacky but still menacing green dinosaur-like Gorn.

And it’s less than an hour’s drive from downtown L.A. by way of the Golden State and Antelope Valley freeways, barely .000000000002 of a parsec away.

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A Strange New World: A Visit to the Vasquez Rocks

By Chris Gore

Of all the otherworldly places the crew of the starship Enterprise visited, one of the most remarkable was the planet on which Captain Kirk fought the Gorn. The classic episode of the original Star Trek series “Arena” pits Kirk against a slow-moving, hissing, yet intelligent serpent creature on a strange new world. But this planetoid on the far reaches of the galaxy is located closer than one would think… right here on earth… in the state of California in fact, in the city of Agua Dulce just outside of Santa Clarita, in the Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park. Which means that earthlings like us can travel to this world and explore the awe-inspiring beauty of these unique rock formations.

This idyllic location for an alien world was literally millions of years in the making. The Vasquez Rocks were formed 25 million years ago due to rapid erosion and were exposed due to activity along the infamous San Andreas Fault. The name comes from local bandit Tiburcio Vasquez, who took refuge in that area from 1873 to 1874.

The setting of the Vasquez Rocks in the Star Trek episode “Arena” has made those rock formations iconic. But it is not an exaggeration to say that this place is a “rock star” having appeared in so many film and television productions. The “Arena” episode from 1967 was just the first time the rocks had starred in Star Trek. The location was used in Star Trek the Next Generation, Star Trek Voyager, as well as other Star Trek movies and as the planet Vulcan in JJ Abrams’ 2009 Star Trek movie. From the earliest Westerns to episodes of The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits, this desert paradise has been home to so many film and TV productions, it should have its own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Wayward Nerd visited the formations to marvel at their beauty and, of course, to take our own photos. For any nerdy traveler, I can’t stress enough how important it is to bring three things with you when visiting the Vasquez Rocks:

2. A camera

3. A Star Trek item to include in your photos

While many choose to bring Star Trek props or uniforms, we brought with us a custom Star Trek LEGO figure of Captain Kirk and an alien to accompany us on our journey. Our tiny companions made quite the stunning models on our adventure.

Before venturing to the canyon itself, take some time to explore the visitor center. There, you will find an impressive scale model of the entire valley along with displays that tell stories of the park’s rich history. There’s also a gift shop in the visitor center where Star Trek items are for sale. Be sure to sign the guest book on the way out where you may even find some famous names. Helpful park rangers are more than happy to answer all your questions, even the nerdy ones.

It’s difficult to describe the feelings you experience upon walking through this famous natural landmark. As a film fan, I can’t help but become giddy at discovering and remembering all the movies in which this park played an integral role—from “Planet of the Apes” to “One Million B.C.” to “The Flintstones” to “Galaxy Quest” to the indie film classic “Free Enterprise” and so many more. If you have the time to take screen captures of the famous Kirk versus Gorn scene from Star Trek, you can even locate the exact spot where William Shatner stood when he found the alien beast.

There is no fee to visit the Vasquez Rocks and you’ll find ample parking. According to the official site, the park is open from sunrise to sunset with seasonal hours listed. I cannot stress how important it is that you bring water as you will truly be surrounded by desert and nothing else. I would also advise calling ahead to be sure that your exploration is not limited by any film or TV productions that may be present, which actually happened on the day we visited. Lucky for us, they hadn’t started shooting yet, so we were able to continue our journey.

Travel safe… and live long and prosper.

Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park

10700 West Escondido Canyon Road

Aqua Dulce, CA 91350

661-268-0840

http://parks.lacounty.gov/wps/portal/dpr/Parks/Vasquez_Rocks_Natural_Area

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Vasquez Rocks: Outlaw Hideout Turned Hollywood Filming Location

What do Westworld , The Wild Wild West , Star Trek , Army of Darkness , and Zorro all have in common? Well, aside from being awesome, they all, at one point or another, filmed at Vasquez Rocks.

Vasquez Rocks - a filming location for both sci-fi and westerns

For me, Vasquez Rocks is a gorgeous natural landscape that is a perfect meld of my favorite things – it is both classically western and classically sci-fi.

Originally we planned to go out here a couple weeks ago, but the forecast called for clouds! And there was no way we was going to drive all the way out there for cloudy skies! Thankfully, earlier this week there were no clouds, but it was pretty windy! I almost lost my hat a couple times! But other than that it was gloriously sunny and few people around.

Atop Vasquez Rocks in a denim skirt, two-tone western shirt, UFO bolo tie by Kesha, and a cream western wear hat.

Vasquez Rocks’ iconic and unique shape make it very easy to spot in the wide variety of TV shows, movies, and even music videos, that used it as a backdrop. It has been used as canyons for outlaws (which is fitting considering its history that I’ll touch on in a bit), the land of prehistoric creatures, as well as otherworldly planets.

One of my favorite shows, Disney’s Zorro , filmed at Vasquez Rocks, however the exact episode escapes me. I guess it’s time to rewatch it! And I’ll update this post with a screencap when I do. Another personal favorite, the 60s The Wild Wild West filmed at Vasquez Rocks twice. In season one’s “The Night of the Sudden Plague” the area was the setting for the villain’s hideout. You can even see the tops of the rocks peeking over the edge of the fort.

Vasquez Rocks in The Wild Wild West episode "The Night of the Sudden Plague."

The location was used in season two, in “The Night of the Cadre” where the climax of the episode takes place.

Vasquez Rocks in The Wild Wild West episode "The Night of the Cadre."

Episode 18 of Star Trek’ s first season, “Arena” is wildly accepted as the quintessential episode. In it Captain Kirk is locked in a battle with the Gorn in the area of Vasquez Rocks. The episode had such an impact that Vasquez Rocks was used again again throughout various incarnations of Star Trek .

Vasquez Rocks in Star Trek's original series.

HBO’s version of Westworld has also chosen to film at Vasquez Rocks, using it as the site of where the town of Escalante would be rebuilt, in the episode “Trace Decay.”

This of course is just a small sampling of the vast productions that have filmed here. The fantastic filming location blog I Am Not a Stalker offers many more images of shows and movies that used Vasquez Rocks.

Now, you know I can’t resist digging up the history of places, and Vasquez Rocks has a bit of an interesting history, especially how it got its name.

Vasquez Rocks History

Like all magnificent rock formations, Vasquez Rocks was created by mother earth millions of years ago. And long before Zorro rode across its landscape or Captain Kirk fought the Gorn, the land was home to the indigenous people known as the Alliklik or Tataviam as they are known today. When the Spanish arrived, the natives were noted as friendly, and like other Native Americans, were assimilated by way of the Spanish Missions. Up until this point these spectacular rocks had no name, or none that was noted. At the conclusion of the Mexican-American War, California became part of the United States and that is when Vasquez Rocks’ name sake, outlaw Tiburcio Vasquez, enters the scene. With the rocks’ deep crevasses and high peeks to serve as lookout posts, Vasquez and his gang found these rocks to be the perfect hideout. Vasquez earned a reputation as a murderer and thief, and a hefty bounty along with, ranging from $2,000 to $8,000 (depending on the source) as well as quite the ladies’ man. He apparently was very charming, loving to sing, dance, play guitar, and even write poetry. However, it is his womanizing that would lead to his downfall. When one of Vasquez’s many female playthings learned he fathered a child with another woman, along with frequent visits to a prostitute, she became enraged. She or one of her family members tipped off William Rowland, the Los Angeles County Sheriff. A shootout ensued at one of Vasquez’ other hideouts, and Vasquez was captured. Women reportedly arrived at his jail cell with flowers, and even a playwright of the nearby Merced Theater wrote a play called “The Capture of Vasquez.” Flattered, Vasquez allowed the actor portraying him to observe him in his cell to glean mannerisms and vocal inflections, and Vasquez even gave the actor his own clothes to wear in the production. Despite claiming he never killed anyone, Vasquez was convicted of murder, and hanged in San Jose on March 19, 1875. He is buried in the Santa Clara Mission Cemetery in Santa Clara.

Near the end of Vasquez’s reign, his former hideout became the location for borax mining as well as homesteading. When the mine closed in 1922 the homesteaders still benefited from an industry that was emerging in California, motion pictures. Homesteaders leased their properties for filming, but by the 1960s, the taxes on the land became too much, and they were bought out by Los Angeles County, and the area became what it is today, a park.

Vasquez Rocks is located in Agua Dulce, about 37 miles northeast of the heart of Hollywood. It is part of the Los Angeles County parks system. For further details on hours and offerings, please visit the website .

Sources Boessernecker, John. “ Bandido: The Countless Love Affairs of Tiburcio Vasquez .” California State Library Foundation Bulletin. p. 6-11. Glenn, John M. “ A History of Vasquez Rocks and the Vicinity .” SCVTV. Lewis, Randy. “ How Vasquez Rocks, L.A.’s onetime outlaw hideout, became ‘Star Trek’s’ favorite alien landscape .” Los Angeles Times. Peterson, Robert. “ The Hunt for Tiburcio Vasquez: A Chase Through a Californio’s L.A. ” KCET.

Image Sources The Wild Wild West images were screencapped by myself. Star Trek “Arena” Image Westworld “Trace Decay” Image

Outfit Hat: Redlands Galleria, Redlands, California Top & Skirt: Buffalo Exchange UFO Bolo Tie: Kesha Turquoise Jewelry: Various Boots: Antique Alley, Portland, Oregon

5 comments on “Vasquez Rocks: Outlaw Hideout Turned Hollywood Filming Location”

Ahhh such a stunning location and that gorgeous blue sky! It looks like a magical place to visit – I love your outfit too! 😀 xx

elizabeth ♡ ”Ice Cream” whispers Clara (PS I’m hoping I might be able to entice you to follow each other on bloglovin haha xD)

This is so cool! And one of my favorite TV shows, Roswell was also filmed here.

Amazing photos! What a gorgeous, otherworldly landscape, and you’ve made beautiful use of it. Love the cute cowgirl look.

I think the zorro episode that was filmed at Vasquez Rocks was Luckiest Swordsman Alive (season 1 #12). There may have been other episodes as well.

This rock is also featured in the opening of “The Adventures of Champion” featuring Champion the Wonder Horse. The series ran one season (26 episodes) from September 23, 1955, to March 3, 1956.

Champion stands about halfway up the rock, rears up on his hind legs then runs down the sloping trail to the level ground below.

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Vasquez Rocks: Santa Clarita’s Historic Backlot

by élite Magazine | Jul 23, 2018 | SCV Reel Talk

It’s easy to forget that one of most filmed locations in Los Angeles, if not California, sits just east of the Santa Clarita City border: Vasquez Rocks. The iconic location, named after cagey desperado Tiburcio Vásquez, who holed up in the area a century and a half ago, has been home to countless film and television productions over the years. Unlike many movie ranches and backlots, which are not open to the public, Vasquez Rocks is a public park owned and operated by the County of Los Angeles and is open for unbridled exploration. Given its significant relevance to the history of film and television, along with its distinctive look, this location is truly unique. In the original television series “Star Trek,” with William Shatner, Vasquez Rocks served as the backdrop for one of the most memorable scenes in the saga’s history. Season 1: Episode 18, titled “Arena,” features an epic battle where Captain Kirk fights the alien space captain Gorn in a comically dramatic duel of death. It’s highly advisable that you stop reading this article immediately and YouTube “Kirk vs. Gorn” before going any further. The scene made optimal use of the canted cliff face and signature rock formations. Since the original television show began airing in the mid-1960s, Vasquez Rocks has been featured on just about every iteration of Star Trek. The location has made appearances on screen in both of the film franchises, including the 2009 J.J. Abrams reboot, where Vasquez Rocks doubled as the planet Vulcan. Vasquez Rocks has been much more than an alien planet. True to its authentic Old West roots, Vasquez Rocks has been home to a multitude of westerns. These include pop culture pillars like “Bonanza,” “Rin Tin Tin,” “Wagon Train,” “Bat Masterson,” “F-Troop” and even the off-color 1974 Mel Brooks comedy, “Blazing Saddles.” Segments filmed at the rocks included the railroad scenes and character Hedley Lamarr’s rousing speech to his collection of miscreants and outlaws. “Badges…?” Faithful viewers will also recognize western scenes in HBO’s current hit sci-fi show “Westworld.” Comedies have certainly utilized the unique look of the rocks to further their storylines as well. In “Bill and Ted’s Bogus Adventure,” evil robot Bill and Ted kidnap the protagonists and take them to Vasquez Rocks, where they promptly kill them. This sets up a meeting with the Grim Reaper where Bill and Ted have to outwit him to “get back to the babes.” In “Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery,” Vasquez Rocks is where Mike Myers and Elizabeth Hurley’s characters escape from Dr. Evil’s lair. The scene famously features Austin’s “shagadelic” Jaguar E-Type roadster amidst the backdrop of the rocks. In the 1994 movie “The Flintstones,” starring John Goodman as the boisterous Fred Flintstone, Vasquez Rocks doubled as the prehistoric town of Bedrock. The production took over the park as they recreated a material version of the cartoon metropolis. “The Flintstones” was a high-powered production from the start, with Steven Spielberg, who was credited as “Steven Spielrock,” as the executive producer. Aside from Goodman and Perkins, the movie featured a top-flight cast, including Elizabeth Taylor, in her last screen appearance, and Halle Berry. The 2000 sequel, “The Flintstones 2: Viva Rock Vegas,” was also filmed at Vasquez Rocks but did not revisit the commercial success of the original, which grossed nearly $342 million worldwide. Vasquez Rocks also starred in the “Friends” Season 5 episode, “The One Where Joey Gets a Big Break.” In the episode, Joey gets the lead in a movie and takes a road trip to Vegas (Vasquez), where he discovers the movie has no funding. Last, but not least, on this look at notable filming at Vasquez Rocks, are two high-profile music videos. Both Michael Jackson’s “Black or White,” and Rhianna’s, “Rehab,” featuring Justin Timberlake, heavily highlight the Rocks. If you are interested in more information on the history of filming in Vasquez Rocks, a simple Google search will reveal volumes of information. However, a quick trip up the 14 Freeway is the best way to truly discover one of Santa Clarita’s historic treasures. The City of Santa Clarita’s Film Office was started in 2002 and today processes over 500 permits per year, leading to over 1,300 film days! Filming is a great benefit to the community, adding over $30 million of positive economic impact per year to the local economy. For a list of what has filmed in Santa Clarita, go to www.FilmSantaClarita.com and follow the City’s film office at Instagram.com/FilmSantaClarita .

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Musings of a Middle-Aged Geek

… observations from a lifetime of geekiness.

Gorn with the Wind: A personal tour of Star Trek’s famed Vasquez Rocks location…

To Safely Go…

During the current COVID pandemic, it’s difficult to find activities that are relatively low-risk for COVID transmission. My wife is fully immunized, but I’ve only had my first COVID-19 vaccination shot, so I’m not quite there yet. That in mind, we were looking for something safe to do during my teacher wife’s Spring Break. My longtime friend Jeri, who is not a Star Trek fan, sent me a pic from a trip she and her husband took to Vasquez Rocks in the town of Agua Dulce (“Sweet Water”) California, north of Santa Clarita. My wife and I live about an hour and a half by freeway from Agua Dulce, and of course, I very much am a Star Trek fan, so I made the pitch to my wife. She thought it was a great idea, so at 8 am on the morning of March 23rd, we took off at warp speed for the rustic desert community of Agua Dulce. Engage!

Driving through our local mountains with some morning drizzle, the sun came out through the haze and we starting seeing some beautiful geological formations from the freeway; lots of sharp peaks, jagged rocks and wild scrub brush. Geologically speaking, we were certainly in the right place. Arriving at a ranch-style gate, we learned that the visitor center was closed, due to both COVID and construction ( understandable ), but we didn’t need to use the visitor center anyway. The main gate was closed to traffic, which I found unusual, since my friend Jeri’s photos showed cars parked at the familiar locale. At any rate, I was glad the gate was closed, because I didn’t want cars or large SUVs to get in my shots—not to mention that fewer people reduces coronavirus concerns. The gate’s closure meant that we had about a quarter mile or so walk ahead of us to see the famed Rocks. Since I’d been taking long walks around my neighborhood to stay limber through quarantine, I was up for it. However, my teacher wife has been remote-teaching at home for over a year, so it was a bit of a hike for her. We took the walking trail carefully, so my wife was okay with it.

Before you get too deep into the main trail, you will see a side trail of interest for geologists, as well as a handy sign telling visitors about the many films and television shows filmed there. I glanced at the sign and noted a few glaring omissions, such as “Star Trek,” “The Outer Limits,” “Alien Nation” and “Free Enterprise.” Instead, the sign showcased more mainstream movies and TV shows such as “The Flintstones Movie,” “24,” “Wild, Wild West,” and “Roswell.” There have also been an incalculable number of old westerns, B-movie serials and even silent movies shot there as well; a century of TV and films, in fact. To call the desert location of Vasquez Rocks iconic is an understatement.

Note: I learned, post de facto, that Vasquez Rocks used to be an infamous hideout for outlaw bandits in the Old West of the late 19th century; the site was named for Tiburcio Vasquez , one of the most notorious of the bunch. This colorful bit of backstory gave the place even more character than it already had as a famed shooting location.

Past the signs and the visitor information, the path gets a bit more remote. Yes, there was the rare house or two off in the distance, but otherwise the area was somewhat desolate, with lots of desert rock and scrub brush. You could take wide panoramic shots (as I often did ) and not see a sign of people if you placed your camera carefully. Despite the bright sunlight and deep blue sky it was a bit chilly that morning, with a stiff breeze. Hardly a frozen tundra, but slightly less than typically warm California weather. Since we were walking, we were burning energy and stayed warm. From a lifetime spent seeing this place only in TV shows and films, it always looked a lot hotter than it was that particular day. Of course, we were seeing it in late March , not late July…

Stepping into “The Arena.”

The trail ends in a large dusty ‘playground’ between the two iconic sets of jagged peaks and a more rounded hillside. This is the place where Captain Kirk (William Shatner) first faced off against the Gorn (Bobby Clark) in TOS Star Trek’s “Arena,” as well as “Shore Leave” ( where Sulu met the Samurai and the tiger ), “The Alternative Factor” ( where actor Robert Browne fell a lot ), “Friday’s Child,” ( where Spock caused a landslide with his tricorder ) and many Treks afterward. Of all the Star Trek episodes shot at Vasquez Rocks, I’d say “Arena” is not only the most iconic of the lot, but it also makes the best use of the arguably limited space—cheating it smartly to feel like a proper alien planetoid. A perfect place for mortal combat between human and lizard-guy. Seen up close, some of its rock formations do indeed look more like Mars than Earth…

Note: The large ‘playground’ area is also an ideal place for film crews to set up makeup/costume trailers, camera and lighting equipment and even a food truck.

The area is not too vast (932 acres of mostly scrub brush and smaller rocks) but it’s certainly large enough to cheat with judicious camera placement—something classic Star Trek fully exploited, of course. At the far end of this playground (my name for it), there are picnic tables, portable chem-toilets, a COVID-safety sign, and some sturdy, heavy-lidded trash cans near a gradual ravine that overlooks a freeway. This was an angle no one wants to film or see, because it’s all for visitor comfort, not its wilderness beauty. I was impressed to see that the place was well-kept for a park ground; no clumps of trash in the bushes, or empty bottles anywhere. Vasquez Rocks looked well-maintained … kudos to its groundskeepers.

Note: We did see a single black flip-flop sandal laying abandoned in the sun.

The most famous jagged peak of the area only looks as sharp as it does on film from specific angles; when you walk around it, you notice that it looks a bit more rounded. I recently rewatched the classic 1963 “Outer Limits” episode, “The Zanti Misfits,” and this was also the exact peak where the large, wasp-like “Zanti” prisoners first set their tiny prison spaceship down on Earth, only to terrify a wayward Bruce Dern when he accidentally makes ‘first contact’. The episode makes extensive use of the location, with various characters running around searching for each other ( their voices echoing ) to make it seem far larger than it is in reality.

The peaks and hills are relatively easy to climb by the way, but since I’ve got an old body full of arthritis (and lost agility as a result), I didn’t want to risk a broken neck to climb the full height of the peaks. I’ll leave that task to those younger, stronger and braver than myself. I climbed about halfway up before I called it a day on that endeavor. I didn’t feel like doing my own impression of Lazarus from TOS’ “The Alternative Factor.”

While TV always made the main peak itself seem relatively small (on a 25″ screen), it’s a bit larger in person, and its severity gives it a certain awe that one might expect from a location like Devil’s Tower (made famous in the sci-fi classic, “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” ). The jaggedness of the rock formations, as well as the landscape’s warm coloring and impossibly blue sky reminded me of the 1956 Chesley Bonestell painting “The Exploration of Mars”, which I first saw in a library book when I was a middle-schooler. Bonestell’s paintings fired my imagination at that age. In those pre-Viking days, Bonestell imagined the thin air of Mars to have a dark blue cast. Just a few minutes at Vasquez Rocks (elevation 2,500 feet) felt like a sojourn to the romantic Mars I remembered from those gorgeous Bonestell paintings. Bonestell’s Mars and moonscape paintings often featured such surreal jagged peaks, and Vasquez Rocks felt like a living homage to his work.

Note: Chesley Bonestell (1888-1986) was one of the most prolific architectural, landscape and space-scape artists of the 20th century. His works hang in the Smithsonian as well as many other venues and textbooks from the 1940s through the 1970s. He also did the occasional matte paintings for films such as “Destination Moon” (1950), “When Worlds Collide” (1951), and “War of the Worlds” (1953). He’s one of those artists whose works you’ve no doubt seen in your lifetime, even if you can’t place the name.

Being an old Star Trek nerd (I am literally as old as The Original Series), I had to bring my TOS bluetooth communicator (one of my favorite birthday gifts ever ) and a toy phaser. Once we arrived, I realized I wanted to have a free hand to take lots of photos, so I left the phaser in the car and pocketed the communicator. My wife and I took a few selfies up there and yes, I whipped out my communicator because I’d kick myself if I didn’t. Flipping open the grill, the communicator made its familiar chirping, and it all just felt so… right . Here I was, 54 years old, playing Star Trek at a place I’d watched on TV countless times for most of my life. I still find it odd that I’d never taken a drive out to this place before—somehow it always seemed so much further away than it was, even though it was in my very state! As I’ve always believed, no one is ever ‘too old’ to enjoy geeky things .

Once again, the illusion of Vasquez Rocks’ ‘alien-ness’ is broken a bit when you look far off into the horizon. You start to see occasional houses, freeways, cars, and other telltale signs of human life here and there. That said, the central acreage of the park is relatively unspoiled and certainly won’t disappoint the casual visitor (or Star Trek nerd). While the main ‘playground’ has some guest conveniences, as mentioned before, like portable chem toilets, picnic baskets and heavy trash cans, they are placed well out of sight for photo opportunists seeking the unspoiled landscapes of Star Trek or old western TV shows. Whether this is true when the main gate is open? I can’t say. We were lucky to have gone on a day when the car access gate was closed and we had the park largely to ourselves . I doubt my wife and I will ever be so lucky again on a future visit.

In TOS’ “Arena,” Captain Kirk defeats the reptilian captain of the Gorn ship by rigging together a cannon out of bamboo, potassium nitrate, sulfur and coal, using a raw diamond as a bullet. First off, I hate to disappoint the hardcore faithful, but there is not a trace of bamboo anywhere in the immediate area of Vasquez Rocks, let alone open deposits of sulfur, coal, potassium nitrate, or diamonds. While the local topography and geology are fascinating (much of it was formed by the unstable San Andreas Fault), it’s not exactly “a mineralogist’s dream,” as Kirk characterized it. An interesting field assignment, to be sure, but not chock full of gun powder ingredients, at least not in open quantities lying around…

Kirk’s cannon came back to mind when we first arrived, and I saw curious patches of bright yellow staining on some of the rocks. I wondered if it might’ve been some kind of faded graffiti, or (as my wife deduced) a few hearty patches of lichen, which would certainly have the tenacity to survive in a desert wilderness. The patches were not open deposits of sulfur, ready to be scooped up into a bamboo bucket to make gun powder. Alas, no improvised bamboo cannons on this trip, folks.

Note: A popular episode of the TV series “Mythbusters” tried to replicate Kirk’s improvised cannon, and it didn’t exactly work as planned. The combined elements did produce limited combustible force, but nowhere near the amount needed to drive a diamond into a reptile creature’s thick rubber chest. At best, it created a messy little science project. Myth busted! Sorry, Captain Kirk…

Near the base of the famed peak were a couple of shaded alcoves, which would make perfect napping spots for local wildlife. A bit small for a Gorn, but great hiding places for a few creepy-crawly Zanti misfits, perhaps…?

Star Treks Beyond.

Of course, TOS Star Trek is not the only Star Trek series to film at Vasquez Rocks. The location has a long tradition of use in the 55 years of the franchise, including Star Trek: The Next Generation (“Who Watches the Watchers?”), Star Trek: Voyager (“Initiations”, “Gravity”), Star Trek: Enterprise (“Unexpected”) and most recently in 2019’s latest Trek series, Star Trek: Picard (“Maps and Legends,” “The End is the Beginning”) where for the first time in Star Trek, the location was not doubling as an alien planet ( more on that in a little bit …).

Next Generation and Voyager made ample use of Vasquez Rocks as the home to the proto-Vulcan species, the Mintakans, in “Who Watches the Watchers?” (1989). That episode was arguably one of the best episodes of that series, as it dealt squarely and honestly with the Federation’s “Prime Directive” of non-interference with alien cultures. Once again, the 932 acres of Vasquez Rocks were cleverly cheated to avoid any signs of then-20th century humans in its horizon shots, and it is convincingly exotic. This episode is also one of my personal favorites of Star Trek.

Vulcan’s Forge.

In the Star Trek feature films, the location was used twice as the famed planet of Mr. Spock’s birth–the hot, thin-aired fictional world orbiting 40 Eridani A known as Vulcan. In “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home” (1986) we see a fleeting shot of Spock (presumably Leonard Nimoy’s stunt double) standing atop the famed jagged peak clad in the white linen robes he wears throughout the movie. It is the only shot of Vasquez Rocks, but it’s well placed and gives the feature an extra bit of production value. The film was shot largely outdoors on locations in San Francisco, Los Angeles (Will Rogers Park doubling for Golden Gate Park) and Monterey Aquarium (doubling for the fictional “Cetacean Institute”). Vasquez Rock’s craggy geology (filmed through a warm orange-sky filter) makes a nice desert contrast to the cooler, wetter Bay Area locations (real & simulated).

“Star Trek” (2009 ) was the soft-reboot of the original series which took place in an alternate reality which was created when Ambassador Spock (Leonard Nimoy) is pursued back through time by a vengeful Romulan named Nero (Eric Bana). This accidental time-travel changes the mid-23rd century for Spock and his old shipmates’ younger selves. In this new reality, Vulcan is but one target in the galaxy-spanning wrath of Nero and his crew. Using a large orbiting drill platform, Nero fires a powerful beam into the core of the planet and inserts “red matter,” which causes Vulcan to implode into a mini black hole. When we see the surface of Vulcan in the film, there are establishing shots using a heavily digitized Vasquez Rocks. This CGI-altered version of the location changes the sky’s color and adds many more sharpened peaks to the camera’s field of view. It also appears that some of the jagged peaks are flipped as well, making them face in the opposite direction. This is most evident when Spock’s mother Amanda (Winona Ryder) steps into the backyard of her home and sees Nero’s drill boring into the planet.

Note: Vasquez Rocks’ jagged hills seem to have inspired ST09’s Vulcan architecture as well, with habitats built directly into the planet’s sharp peaks and canyon walls (not too unlike the cities built into the canyon faces on Krypton in 1978’s “Superman”), subtly conveying the planet’s violent geological history as well as its inhabitant’s pointed ears…

The backside of the peaks, which look very Vulcan-like, also reminded me of the craggy rocks surrounding Utah’s Lake Powell, which was used in 1968’s “Planet of the Apes,” as well as its less-surefooted 2001 remake from director Tim Burton. The latter film also used location shooting at Vasquez Rocks to supplement its footage from Lake Powell. A good idea, since the locations have similar topography that can be easily stitched together in editing to present a single fictional location.

The (real) Voyage Home.

The recent 2019 series Star Trek: Picard uses Vasquez Rocks once again, but not as Vulcan, Mintanka III or some other exotic alien vista. For the first time in Trek history, the location is simply Vasquez Rocks—or at least as it will be in the year 2399. The location is identified by name on camera in the episode “The End is the Beginning.” We first see Picard (Patrick Stewart, returning to the role) walk up to the site after being dropped off by a shuttlecraft taxi in the prior episode “Maps and Legends.” Picard, ever the diplomat, tries desperately to convince his former first officer Raffi Musiker (Michelle Hurd) to join him for one last trip into space to solve a Romulan-android conspiracy.

Raffi is living in a tiny mobile home right at the base of the famed “Arena” peak itself. This is a bit strange, since I can’t imagine any future where Raffi would be allowed to build a mobile home right on the nature preserve itself, but…who knows? In an alternate reality where Star Trek was never a TV show, maybe the location was long forgotten as a tourist attraction. In wide shots of the terrain, you still see the real-life walkway, but some of the other features (such as real-life houses) appear to be wiped clean. Since Star Trek can’t exist within its own fictional universe, I expect that no one in Picard’s fictional era really cared what happened to this little patch of wilderness by the year 2399. Given the place’s fascinating geology and topography, it’s hard to imagine a universe where no one finds Vasquez Rocks as awe-inspiring and beautiful as my wife and I did during our visit.

If anyone’s interested?

The rest of my Vasquez Rocks photos can be found in my Flickr link here. Enjoy!

Just to be clear; I used no filters or digital augmentation in any of my Vasquez Rocks photos—I wanted to capture it as it was, not some idealization of it, and I want to convey that same feeling to my readers. My handy-dandy iPhone 8 (and my wife’s iPhone 12) did a decent enough job of capturing the location, though I wish the photos were in 3D, if only to convey the scale .

COVID-Safety.

Star Trek is, of course, available to stream on Paramount Plus, with some of the series still streamable on Netflix as well. To my readers, I once again wish you and all of your loved ones good health and strength during the current coronavirus pandemic. The current number of COVID-related deaths in the United States are around 541,000 as of this writing. Meanwhile, several vaccines have been developed and inoculations have began in earnest (I myself have received my first shot of the Moderna vaccine ), but it will take time for herd immunity. Even with vaccines, the overall situation is far from safe. Many questions remain regarding the coronavirus variants, or if vaccines fully prevent unwitting transmission from an asymptomatic carrier. So for the time being, please continue to practice social safe-distancing as often as you can, wear masks in public, and avoid overly crowded outings as much as possible. If you choose to visit Vasquez Rocks (or any other public park) make sure you bring a mask to wear if others are present. It takes very little effort to be considerate for others’ safety.

Live long and prosper!

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Vasquez Rocks

Star trek: picard (2020 - 2023).

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Jean-Luc Picard visits Raffi to get her on board of his mission. At first she does not want to speak to him. (Episode 1.2)

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Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park is a 932-acre (377-hectare) park located in the Sierra Pelona Mountains in northern Los Angeles County, California. It is widely known for distinctive rock formations, the result of sedimentary layering and later seismic uplift. Its repeated use as a filming location – especially for Star Trek – have given it the nickname Kirk's Rock. These rock formations were formed by rapid erosion during uplift about 25 million years ago. Vasquez Rocks are named for the outlaw Tiburcio Vasquez, bandit who used the rocks as his hideout.

(source Wikipedia)

Patric Stewart, Michelle Hurd

Set twenty years after the events of Star Trek Nemesis, we follow the now-retired Admiral Picard into the next chapter of his life.

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Vasquez Rocks County Park – Star Trek Film Location

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Recommended by 8 hikers

Location: Los Angeles County , California , United States

The County Park features some stunning rock formations created by the San Andreas Fault. It is no surprise that dozens of movies and TV series have been filmed out here. The Vasquez Rocks were used as background for Star Trek, Planet of the Apes, MacGyver, Bonanza, The Lone Ranger and Twilight Zone. Since this is a famous spot, you will find some water spigots with potable water as well as pit toilets.

May 3, 2020

The Pacific Crest Trail crosses here through the Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park. Nicknamed Kirk's Rock for its many appearances in popular culture it is a 932-acre (377-hectare) park located in the Sierra Pelona Mountains in northern Los Angeles County, south of the town center of Agua Dulce. These rock formations were formed by rapid erosion during uplift about 25 million years ago, and then later exposed by uplift activity along the San Andreas Fault. The Tataviam people were living here when the Spanish arrived. Their language was most likely a Takic Uto-Aztecan language. They lived in grass huts within villages. With the coming of the Spanish missions, some of these people were forced to work there. They eventually began speaking Spanish and inter-marrying with other tribes. The last of the Tataviam people died in 1916. In 1874, Tiburcio Vásquez, one of California's most notorious bandits, used these rocks to elude capture by law enforcement. His name has since been associated with this geologic feature. The land and rock formations were acquired gradually by Los Angeles County, beginning with a donation of 40 acres in 1971, with more parcels being added through 2001. Vasquez Rocks was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972 because of its significance as a prehistoric site for the Shoshone and Tataviam peoples. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasquez_Rocks

May 4, 2020

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Santa Clarita, California : Star Trek Gorn Battle Rocks - Vasquez Rocks

Familiar craggy location for the original Star Trek "Gorn" episode, and Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey in tribute years later. It was also used as Vulcan on the Star Trek movie reboot.

Vasquez Rocks County Park

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Reports and tips from RoadsideAmerica.com visitors and Roadside America mobile tipsters . Some tips may not be verified. Submit your own tip .

As a Trekkie, I knew I had to climb the rocks in proper gear. Excellent destination!

Make sure you stop in the Visitor's Center for maps. There are live snakes, scorpions, and tarantulas behind glass on display so you can learn to ID them. There is a nice gift shop there as well.

If you're in a hurry and don't have time to stop, the Vasquez Rocks can easily be seen on the west side of Highway 14, which runs between Santa Clarita and Palmdale.

In the early 1990s, we were able to tour the set of the Flintstones movie at this site.

This was also a hideout in the 1870's for the infamous California outlaw Tiburcio Vasquez...hence the name of the rocks!

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Home > Films > S > Star Trek

Saturday April 20th 2024

Star Trek | 2009

Locations |
Los Angeles , California
Chris Pine,
Zachary Quinto,
Leonard Nimoy,
Simon Pegg,
Karl Urban,
Zoe Saldana,
Anton Yelchin,
Bruce Greenwood,
Winona Ryder,
Chris Hemsworth,
Jennifer Morrison,
Tyler Perry,
Rachel Nichols,
Clifton Collins Jr

JJ Abrams pulled off the unlikely feat of pleasing critics, audiences and diehard Trekkies rebooting the Star Trek franchise.

The surface of ‘Vulcan’ – as it was for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home – is the 745-acre Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park , 10700 West Escondido Canyon Road , near Agua Dulce Springs , about an hour north of Los Angeles .

This is a sly nod to the original TV series which, although largely studio-based, several 1960s episodes – including Shore Leave and Arena – ventured out to find alien landscapes among the awesome rock formations. Named after the 19th century outlaw Tiburcio Vasquez , who hid out here, this outburst of the San Andreas Fault has been used in hundreds of Westerns and sci-fi movies, pop videos and photoshoots – see it in Apache , Alpha Dog , Starship Troopers and as far back as 1935 in Werewolf Of London .

The park is in the high desert north of Los Angeles , between Newhall and Acton, off Route 14.

Star Trek (2009) location: Oviatt Library, Cal-Tech University, Northridge

For the 'Starfleet Academy', digital technology moves the Oviatt Library at Cal-State University, Northridge in Los Angeles ' San Fernando Valley , to sit alongside San Francisco ’s Golden Gate Bridge .

The library had previously featured (as the superhero school) in Sky High and, more down to earth, in Legally Blonde 2 and Lindsay Lohan - Jane Fonda misfire Georgia Rule . On the small screen, sci-fi buffs might have seen it in Star Trek Voyager , Roswell and Battlestar Galactica .

Star Trek (2009) location: Long Beach City Hall, California

It’s in the circular council chamber of Long Beach City Hall , 333 West Ocean Boulevard , alongside Lincoln Park, that Kirk and Spock initially face off when Kirk is accused of cheating in the Kobayashi Maru (the supposedly unwinnable Starfleet training exercise), but are finally decorated after defeating he Romulan attack, and Kirk is appointed captain of the Enterprise ( Los Angeles Metro, Blue Line ).

More mundanely, 'Delta Vega', the ice planet was recreated in the parking lot of the Dodger Stadium , 1000 Vin Scully Avenue , downtown Los Angeles , home of the Los Angeles Dodgers (the car park is where Brian O'Conner ( Paul Walker ) is giving his car a workout at the opening of The Fast and The Furious ).

The USS Enterprise 's gleaming engine room, where the young Scotty ( Simon Pegg ) gets beamed into a cooling pipe, is the Budweiser Brewery Anheuser-Busch Inc, 15800 Roscoe Boulevard , just west of the San Diego Freeway (I-405) in Van Nuys in the San Fernando Valley, while the recently restored 1930s Long Beach Generating Station on Terminal Island became the engine room of the USS Kelvin , aboard which Kirk is born (you can see the plant pre-restoration in Michael Bay ’s The Island , with Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson ) and Next with Nicolas Cage .

Visit The Film Locations

Visit: California

Visit: Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park , 10700 Escondido Canyon Road, Santa Clarita, CA 91390 ( tel: 661.268.0840 )

California | Los Angeles

Visit: Los Angeles

Flights: Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) , 1 World Way, Los Angeles, CA 90045 ( tel: 424.646.5252 )

Travelling around: Los Angeles Metro

Visit: the Dodger Stadium , 1000 Vin Scully Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90012 ( tel: 866.363.4377 )

Re-Uses of the Vasquez Rocks Location

by Jörg Hillebrand and Bernd Schneider

Vasquez Rocks is a Los Angeles County Park of 745 acres. It has been used for location shooting in numerous movie and television productions , including eleven times for Star Trek:

1. Amusement Park Planet in TOS: "Shore Leave" (where Kirk gets beaten up by Finnegan) 2. Metron Asteroid in TOS: "Arena" (that the Metrons have set up for Kirk to fight against the Gorn) 3. Lazarus's Planet in TOS: "The Alternative Factor" (site of the rift between the universes) 4. Capella IV in TOS: "Friday's Child" (where Kirk, Spock, McCoy and the pregnant Eleen seek refuge) 5. Vulcan in "Star Trek IV" (the peak to which Spock retreats to meditate) 6. Mintaka III in TNG: "Who Watches the Watchers" (site of the "duck blind") 7. Tarok in VOY: "Initiations" (Kazon training ground) 8. Xyrillian homeworld in ENT: "Unexpected" (holo-simulation, not on location) 9. Vulcan in "Star Trek (2009)" (two different places, not on location, heavily digitally manipulated) 10. Vasquez Rocks in PIC: "Maps and Symbols" and "The End is the Beginning" (the only time the place appears as what it really is) 11. Ni'Var (Vulcan) in DIS: "All Is Possible" (two different places, not on location, heavily digitally manipulated)

It is not possible to identify all parts of Vasquez Rocks beyond doubt in the episodes and movies because it may appear very different depending on the camera angle - fortunately, because otherwise the various planets would look the same. Nonetheless several parts of the location can be clearly recognized.

General Information

Vasquez Rocks is located in Los Angeles County, halfway between Santa Clarita and Palmdale, north of the Antelope Valley Freeway (State Route 14).

The most characteristic part of Vasquez Rocks is a massive slanted rock formation with two spikes, consisting of distinct plates. On postcards and on private photos this formation is most often depicted from a plain on the north side where a parking lot is located. We will refer to this side as the front of the rock. The two peaks are pointing to the left when looking in this direction.

In TNG: "Who Watches the Watchers" Riker and Troi, dressed as Mintakans, walk along the front side of the formation. With a couple of screen caps assembled to a panorama, we get a quite good impression of this side of Vasquez Rocks. The eye-catching slanted rocks are located on the right, with the double peak pointing to the left. The "duck blind" for the observation of the native Mintakans is located in the peak. Many years later, PIC: "The End is the Beginning" shows the same panorama in one shot, thanks to the extreme widescreen format of the series (one of the very few occasions where this waste of TV screen space actually makes sense).

The characteristic rocks were previously filmed for two TOS episodes from roughly the same angle, as a comparison of the following screen caps from TOS: "Shore Leave" (right peak) and TOS: "Friday's Child" (left peak) demonstrates. On the latter picture we see the moment of the explosion that is supposed to throw back the Capellan pursuers.

The screen cap from TOS: "Friday's Child" brings to light that a path leads up the rock between the uppermost double peak and the lower peak on its left. The same episode also provides us with a view in opposite direction, from the path down on the plain.

Another path to the other side of the tall rock is located on the very right edge of the front views examined so far. In TNG: "Who Watches the Watchers" the Mintakans take this way, as does Kirk in TOS: "Shore Leave".

The following screen cap from TOS: "Shore Leave" may show the fork. The narrow left path leads up the rocks, the right one around the rocks.

TOS: "Arena" prominently features the rear side of Vasquez Rocks. Compared to the previous prospects the following images show the two spikes from the opposite side, so they are now facing to the right. More than 50 years later, almost the same angles were chosen for two shots in PIC: "Maps and Legends".

The rock can be seen from roughly the same angle in TOS: "The Alternative Factor", "Star Trek IV" and VOY: "Initiations". In ENT: "Unexpected" the camera position was close to the more rounded rock on the right.

The almost panoramic view of the rear side with Kirk and the Gorn reveals something like a road between the tall rocks on the left and the somewhat lower ones on the right. This is quite odd on a planetoid that the Metrons have prepared, for we wouldn't expect them to use wheeled vehicles. ;-) In one take we can even clearly see how the Gorn stands in the middle of that road. The other picture is taken from a somewhat different angle avoiding to include the road and shows more details of the right rock formation. These rocks were also clearly visible from the other side in the Mintakan panorama .

Raffi's trailer is located at the rear side of the rock formation in PIC: "The End is the Beginning". The relative position to the rocks, however, is not consistent and changes more than once during the episode. Also, the surroundings of Vasquez Rocks were heavily edited for the establishing shot in the episode, adding higher mountains than in reality (probably to obscure man-made structures of the 21st century).

We can make out the same rock hill with a rounded top in a number of episodes. This hill is located on the western side of the main rock formation, the right side as seen from the front.

Western fort

The "western fort" of Cestus III from TOS: "Arena" was located directly at Vasquez Rocks, but was shot in a fashion not to reveal the prominent rocks in the background. It is possible that the wrinkled metal sheet on the top of the wide-angle shot was deliberately used to obscure the rocks.

Digital manipulations

Lower Decks

Other appearances

More on a side note, Vasquez Rocks also shows up in the Futurama episode "Where No Fan Has Gone Before" (the Star Trek homage with almost all voices of the TOS cast).

A photo of Vasquez Rocks is used to represent Sherman's Planet in the Decipher Star Trek CCG, but this is non-canon as the surface of that planet was never on screen.

Re-Used Planet Sets - different planet surfaces that are amazingly alike

Locating Starfleet Buildings in San Francisco - matte paintings and their supposed real locations in and near the city

Most screen caps from TrekCore . The scan from Star Trek: TNG 365 comes from Memory Alpha . Thanks to Matthew Callis, who pointed out the Decipher card game to us.

https://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/inconsistencies/reused_planets_vasquez.htm

Last modified: 27 Oct 2023

This website is not endorsed, sponsored or affiliated with CBS Studios Inc. or the Star Trek franchise.

Fleet Yards

Filming locations

View history

Throughout the history of Star Trek , the various television and movie productions have filmed at locations, predominantly in Southern California, to provide a broader scope and grandeur than can be achieved easily on a closed set. Even with the advent of CGI, location shoots have continued.

According to director David Livingston , Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was budgetarily designed to have five or six location shoots per year. ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion (p. ? )) Livingston also mentioned that location shootings were always considered as "play days" or "picnics" by the crew and cast. (" New Life and New Civilizations ", TNG Season 4 DVD special feature)

Among the location managers and scouts who worked on Star Trek productions are Rhonda Baer , Rick Byrum , Lisa White , and Claudia Eastman .

1.1 Episodes filmed on location
2.1 Episodes filmed on location
3.1 Episodes filmed on location
4.1 Episodes filmed on location
5.1 Episodes filmed on location
6.1 Episodes filmed on location
7.1 Episodes filmed on location
8.1 Episodes filmed on location
9.1 Episodes filmed on location
10.1 Star Trek: The Motion Picture
10.2 Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
10.3 Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
10.4 Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
10.5 Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
10.6 Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
10.7 Star Trek Generations
10.8 Star Trek: First Contact
10.9 Star Trek: Insurrection
10.10 Star Trek Nemesis
10.11 Star Trek
10.12 Star Trek Into Darkness
10.13 Star Trek Beyond
11 See also

Star Trek: The Original Series [ ]

The pilot episodes, " The Cage " and " Where No Man Has Gone Before ", were shot at Desilu 's Culver City facilities, on stages 15 , 16 , and 17 .

For "The Cage", Stage 15 housed the Enterprise bridge, the Orion courtyard, the Talosian menagerie, and the "Hellfire" sets, while Stage 16 had the rest of the Enterprise sets (transporter room, briefing room, Pike's quarters, corridors), as well as the surface of Talos IV , the Mojave parkland, and the Orion cavern. ( These Are the Voyages: TOS Season One , 1st ed. pp. 56-62)

For "Where No Man Has Gone Before", Stage 15 housed all Enterprise sets, while Stage 16 had the exteriors of Delta Vega , and Stage 17 the interiors of the Delta Vega outpost . ( These Are the Voyages: TOS Season One , 1st ed. pp. 87-90)

The Desilu Stage 10 cyclorama set in " Amok Time "

The Culver City soundstages, which dated back to Gone with the Wind (1939) and were seldomly maintained, were quickly deemed unusuable by the producers, who also wanted to keep a close watch on the show, so when Star Trek made it to series, the production was moved to Desilu's main studio lot at Gower Street, Hollywood. The series mainly utilized stages 9 and 10, which were later combined with the adjacent Paramount studios to form Paramount Stage 31 and Paramount Stage 32 .

Stage 9 housed all Enterprise interiors, while the different alien worlds were built on Stage 10, which also had a cyclorama set, where planet exteriors could be filmed, using different colored lights to create alien atmospheres. ( The Making of Star Trek , Inside Star Trek: The Real Story )

The 40 Acres backlot in " The City on the Edge of Forever "

The "Arab Village" section of Desilu's 40 Acres backlot (formerly owned by RKO-Pathé) was used to film the Rigel VII exteriors in "The Cage", marking the first time an outdoors location was utilized for Star Trek . Filming took place on 14 December 1964 and 15 December 1964 . The same location was used to depict the exteriors of Organia in the first season episode " Errand of Mercy ", filmed on 27 January 1967 . ( These Are the Voyages: TOS Season One , 1st ed. pp. 61, 499-500)

A different section of the 40 Acres backlot, best known for being used by The Andy Griffith Show as the town of Mayberry, served as filming location on the first season episodes " Miri ", " The Return of the Archons ", and " The City on the Edge of Forever ", depicting the exteriors of Miri's planet , Beta III , and 1930 New York City respectively. Filming took place on 24 August 1966 , 7 December 1966 , 8 December 1966 , and 3 February 1967 . ( These Are the Voyages: TOS Season One , 1st ed. pp. 258, 440, 516)

A studio alleyway behind Desilu Stage 10 was used to film the scene from " The City on the Edge of Forever " where Leonard McCoy arrives in the year 1930. Filming took place on 8 February 1967 . ( These Are the Voyages: TOS Season One , 1st ed., p. 517)

The lush exteriors of the Shore Leave Planet in " Shore Leave " were filmed at Africa USA Ranch , a wildlife preserve in Soledad Canyon, Los Angeles County that featured exotic animals from around the world, which existed at that time in the Antelope Valley in Southern California. [1] Filming took place between 19 October 1966 and 24 October 1966 . ( These Are the Voyages: TOS Season One , 1st ed. pp. 375-377)

Another frequent (and now iconic) Star Trek location, the unique slanting points of the Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park in Southern California's Antelope Valley in Agua Dulce, Los Angeles County was also used to depict the Shore Leave Planet, filmed on 25 October 1966 and 26 October 1966 . ( These Are the Voyages: TOS Season One , 1st ed. pp. 377-378)

Vasquez Rocks in " Arena "

The series returned to Vasquez Rocks to film the exteriors of the Metron planetoid in " Arena ", for which the location is most often remembered. [2] Filming took place on 9 November 1966 and 10 November 1966 . ( These Are the Voyages: TOS Season One , 1st ed. pp. 403-404)

The exteriors of the destroyed Cestus III colony in "Arena" were filmed at an outdoors set near Vasquez Rocks, originally built for the series Tales of the 77th Bengal Lancers in 1956. Filming took place on 11 November 1966 . ( These Are the Voyages: TOS Season One , 1st ed. p. 405)

Vasquez Rocks also served as filming location to depict the surface of Lazarus' planet in " The Alternative Factor ", filmed on 22 November 1966 and 23 November 1966 , and that of Capella IV in the second season episode " Friday's Child ", filmed on 24 May 1967 and 25 May 1967 . ( These Are the Voyages: TOS Season One , 1st ed. pp. 417-419; These Are the Voyages: TOS Season Two , pp. 86-88)

Spock and Leila by the creek, deleted scene

Bronson Canyon in " This Side of Paradise "

The outdoors sequences on Omicron Ceti III in " This Side of Paradise " were filmed on location at the Disney Golden Oak Ranch . However, due to guest star Jill Ireland 's illness, some scenes were postponed and had to be filmed in Bronson Canyon , part of Griffith Park in Los Angeles, California, as the Golden Oak Ranch was booked for another production. Filming at the Ranch took place between 5 January 1967 and 9 January 1967 , while the Bronson Canyon scenes were filmed on 13 January 1967 . ( These Are the Voyages: TOS Season One , 1st ed. pp. 473-476) [3]

The Deneva colony scenes in " Operation -- Annihilate! " were filmed at the then futuristic TRW Space and Defense Park in the city of Redondo Beach, California. Filming took place on 15 February 1967 . ( These Are the Voyages: TOS Season One , 1st ed. p. 529)

The crew returned to Bronson Canyon, close to the Hollywood sign, to film the exteriors as well as the cavern interior scenes on planet 892-IV in the second season episode " Bread and Circuses ", filmed on 12 September 1967 and 13 September 1967 . ( These Are the Voyages: TOS Season Two , pp. 343-344) [4]

Bell Ranch in " A Private Little War "

For " A Private Little War " outdoor scenes on planet Neural were filmed on location at the Bell Ranch , separating the San Fernando Valley (in Los Angeles County) from Simi Valley (in Ventura County). Filming took place between 2 October 1967 and 4 October 1967 . ( These Are the Voyages: TOS Season Two , pp. 378-381)

After the Paramount-Desilu merge during the second season, Paramount soundstages, backlots and other facilities became available for the production.

The studio's large " B Tank " housed the village sets for " A Private Little War ", which were built for another production and became availabe to Star Trek on short notice. These scenes were filmed on 6 October 1967 . The same village sets were used to film the Kohm village exteriors on Omega IV in " The Omega Glory ", shot on 19 December 1967 . ( These Are the Voyages: TOS Season Two , pp. 382, 576)

Paramount Director's Building in " Patterns of Force "

Many "outside" locations were filmed on the Desilu / Paramount studio lot, where real office buildings and other structures had been used for scenes in the series. The short newsreel footage of the police arrest in " Bread and Circuses " was filmed in front of a Paramount office building on 13 September 1967 . ( These Are the Voyages: TOS Season Two , p. 344)

For " Patterns of Force ", the Directors' Building and the Producers' Building were both used as the Ekosian headquarters. Another location which was used for the episode was the Producer's Park on the Paramount lot. At the time of filming it was a wide free area and used to stand-in during car scenes. It was accessible by automobiles. Later it became a parking lot and today it is a green park area surrounded by offices. The Schulberg Building was also part of the same episode, used for the Ekosian headquarters. Today it is used for administrative purposes. The Lubitsch Building can be seen in the background when Kirk and Spock meet an Ekosian soldier. These scenes were filmed on 29 November 1967 . ( These Are the Voyages: TOS Season Two , p. 547)

In " Assignment: Earth ", when Kirk and Spock beam in to McKinley Rocket Base to try to stop Gary Seven , the shots of the NASA building were taken just behind the Marlene Dietrich Building , which currently houses Paramount's Media Relations department. In addition, a false front was added on to the northwest corner of the Dietrich building so it could be used as the opening to Gary Seven's New York office. These scenes were filmed on 8 January 1968 . ( These Are the Voyages: TOS Season Two , pp. 595-596)

Further exterior scenes on Ekos in " Patterns of Force " were shot at Paramount's " European Town " backlot, also filmed on 29 November 1967. ( These Are the Voyages: TOS Season Two , p. 547)

The " Windsor Street " backlot was used to film some New York scenes in " Assignment: Earth ", also filmed on 8 January 1968. ( These Are the Voyages: TOS Season Two , p. 595)

The " McFadden Street " and " Boston Street " backlots were used to depict the Sigma Iotia II city exteriors in " A Piece of the Action ". Filming on these locations took place on 6 November 1967 and 7 November 1967 respectively. ( These Are the Voyages: TOS Season Two , pp. 494-495)

Franklin Reservoir in " The Paradise Syndrome "

The Franklin Canyon Reservoir in the Santa Monica Mountains, Beverly Hills, Los Angeles County was used to film the exteriors of Amerind in the third season episode " The Paradise Syndrome ". Filming took place between 12 June 1968 and 14 June 1968 . [5] [6] ( These Are the Voyages: TOS Season Three , pp. 120-122)

The only other location shoot in season 3 took place at the aforementioned "European Town" backlot which was used to depict the town in Sarpeidon 's "witchcraft" age in " All Our Yesterdays ". Filming took place on 20 December 1968 . ( These Are the Voyages: TOS Season Three , pp. 617-618)

Episodes filmed on location [ ]

" The Cage "
" Miri " ( Season 1 )
" Shore Leave "
" The Alternative Factor "
" The Return of the Archons "
" This Side of Paradise "
" Errand of Mercy "
" The City on the Edge of Forever "
" Operation -- Annihilate! "
" Friday's Child " ( Season 2 )
" Bread and Circuses "
" A Private Little War "
" A Piece of the Action "
" Patterns of Force "
" The Omega Glory "
" Assignment: Earth "
" The Paradise Syndrome " ( Season 3 )
" All Our Yesterdays "

Star Trek: The Next Generation [ ]

On Friday 29 May 1987 , the holodeck park scenes for the pilot episode " Encounter at Farpoint " were filmed at Fern Dell , Griffith Park in Los Angeles, California. ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion (p. ? ); Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion ( ? ed., p. ? )) According to the daily production report, this was the very first day of filming on the series.

In the first season episode " Justice ", the Tillman Water Reclamation Plant was used as the main outdoor filming location. Later, most of the episodes, including " The First Duty ", dealing with the Starfleet Headquarters and the nearby Starfleet Academy were shot at this site, with the filmed segments supplemented with matte backgrounds to fit in with the 24th century San Francisco . ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion ( ? ed., p. ? )) Its address is 6100 Woodley Avenue, Van Nuys in the San Fernando Vally California. Many of the scenes were filmed at the Japanese Garden , Woodley Avenue Park, between Victory Boulevard and Burbank Boulevard, surrounding the plant designed by Dr. Koichi Kawana. [7] [8] [9]

The scene in which Wesley Crusher fell into the flowers in the episode " Justice " was filmed at the Huntington Library in Pasadena. ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion ( ? ed., p. ? ))

The scenes in the 1941 San Francisco in the holodeck scenes of " The Big Goodbye " were filmed at Paramount Pictures New York Street backlot. ( Energized! Taking The Next Generation to the Next Level , TNG Season 1 Blu-ray special feature)

The only location shoot in the second season , the scene in which Captain Picard visited the holodeck for an equestrian adventure in " Pen Pals ", was filmed on a ranch near Thousand Oaks , a suburb of Los Angeles. ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion ( ? ed., p. ? ))

Scenes for the episode " The Survivors " were shot at a beach house in Malibu, Los Angeles County. ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion ( ? ed., p. ? )) [10]

For " Who Watches The Watchers " and " Darmok ", the new Enterprise cast and crew returned to the Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park as a location. ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion ( ? ed., p. ? )) [11]

For the third season episode " Ménage à Troi ", the production filmed the surface of Betazed at the Huntington Library botanical gardens in San Marino, a suburb of Los Angeles. ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion ( ? ed., p. ? ))

A private residence on Venture Blvd. in Encino stood in as the Picard family home in Labarre, France in the episode " Family ". The vineyard scenes in this episode were filmed at a private dryland operation near Lancaster in the southwest of Edwards Air Force Base in Palmdale. ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion ( ? ed., p. ? ), " New Life and New Civilizations ", TNG Season 4 DVD special feature)

For the episode " Final Mission ", the El Mirage Dry Lake Bed in San Bernardino County, east of Los Angeles was used to portray the surface of Lambda Paz . ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion ( ? ed., p. ? ))

The fourth season episode " Qpid " featured scenes in the Sherwood Forest which were actually filmed at one day location shooting on Tuesday 12 February 1991 in the Descanso Gardens , northeast of northeastern Los Angeles suburb Glendale. ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion ( ? ed., p. ? ))

The fifth season episode " Darmok " also featured the Bronson Canyon location, part of Griffith Park , below the famous Hollywood sign to stand in as the surface of El-Adrel IV . The scenes for this episode were filmed on 23 July 1991 and 24 July 1991 under director Rick Kolbe . The next episode, " Ensign Ro ", featured the same location to portray the Bajoran refugee camp on Valo II . ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion ( ? ed., p. ? ))

The opening scenes of the episode " Silicon Avatar " showed the Golden Oak Ranch , also known as the Disney Ranch, in the Santa Clarita Valley, north of Los Angeles as the surface of Melona IV . ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion ( ? ed., p. ? ))

Another episode of TNG's fifth season featured a brief location shooting. The episode " The Inner Light " had Picard on a hiking trip. This scene was filmed again at Bronson Canyon in Griffith Park and later upgraded with matte paintings. ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion ( ? ed., p. ? ))

For the episode " Time's Arrow " location shootings were filmed at the historic Pico House and along Olvera Street in old Los Angeles which stood in for the exterior shots of San Francisco . ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion ( ? ed., p. ? )) For the second part, " Time's Arrow, Part II ", the scenes were filmed at Paramount 's newly-built New York Street backlot. ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion ( ? ed., p. ? ); StarTrek.com (X) )

The sixth season episode " A Fistful of Datas ", which featured a western town, was filmed on a day at the Six Points Texas backlot of the Universal Studios , known as the " Western Town ", 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA. ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion ( ? ed., p. ? ))

Although " Tapestry " featured no location shooting, non Trek sound stage 10 was used to house the set of the Bonestell Recreation Facility at Starbase Earhart . ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion ( ? ed., p. ? ))

For the season cliffhanger " Descent " and the opening episode of the seventh season " Descent, Part II ", the crew went on location to shoot several outdoor scenes. Lore 's Borg compound was the Brandeis-Bardin Institute and the wood scenes were filmed in the area surrounding the building in Simi Valley , northwest of Los Angeles. ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion ( ? ed., p. ? ))

Griffith Park's Cedar Grove was used to portray the surface of the planet visited in the first episode of the two-part " Gambit, Part I ". ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion ( ? ed., p. ? ))

For the surface of Kesprytt III in the episode " Attached ", the familiar location of Griffith Park's Bronson Canyon was again used. This time the crew went to the location near the Hollywood sign for a two day shoot. ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion ( ? ed., p. ? ))

During the location shooting in Griffith Park's Bronson Canyon for the episode " Homeward " in which the location stood in as surface of Boraal II the crew had to break the filming on 2 November 1993 because of the heavy wildfires in that area. According to line producer Merri D. Howard , director Alexander Singer was thankful that the area they've chosen did not burn down and that it was not necessary to search a similar location. ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion ( ? ed., p. ? ))

The holodeck scenes in the episode " Emergence " were filmed on Paramount Pictures ' own New York Street backlot, which was largely unaltered for the episode. ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion ( ? ed., p. ? ))

The last episode of the series, " All Good Things... ", featured a short scene at the Picard vineyards which was filmed at Callaway Vineyard & Winery in Temecula, California instead of the previous used location near Lancaster for the episode " Family ". ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion ( ? ed., p. ? ))

" Encounter at Farpoint " ( Season 1 )
" Justice "
" The Big Goodbye "
" Pen Pals " ( Season 2 )
" The Survivors " ( Season 3 )
" Who Watches The Watchers "
" Ménage à Troi "
" Family " ( Season 4 )
" Final Mission "
" Darmok " ( Season 5 )
" Ensign Ro "
" Silicon Avatar "
" The First Duty "
" The Inner Light "
" Time's Arrow "
" Time's Arrow, Part II " ( Season 6 )
" A Fistful of Datas "
" Descent "
" Descent, Part II " ( Season 7 )
" Gambit, Part I "
" Attached "
" Homeward "
" Emergence "
" All Good Things... "

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine [ ]

The sequence where Benjamin Sisko and his son Jake sit on a covered bridge within the holodeck and where Benjamin and Jennifer sat down for a picnic were actually filmed at the Golden Oak Ranch , which is operated by the Walt Disney Company. The ranch is located at 19802 Placerita Canyon Road, Newhall, California. ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion (p. ? )) [12] The flashback scenes at the Gilgo Beach in " Emissary " were filmed at the Leo Carrillo State Beach in Malibu, Los Angeles County. [13] Jadzia Dax ' perspective of the wormhole terrain was filmed at the Huntington Garden in San Marino while the baseball field sequence was filmed at the Oak Grove Park in Pasadena. ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion (p. ? ))

The Bajoran Monastery of the Kai garden scenes in the first season episode " In the Hands of the Prophets " in 1993 were filmed at Fern Dell , a section of Griffith Park. ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion (p. ? )) [14]

Filming for the first episode of the second season began on 7 July 1993 in a working rock quarry in Soledad Canyon , north of Los Angeles. Director Winrich Kolbe previously wanted to use Bronson Canyon as the location for Cardassia IV , but admitted that " the damn place has been shot so often, there's not a square inch that hasn't been filmed by somebody ". ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion (p. ? ))

For the second episode of the second season, " The Circle ", the production team returned to Griffith Park's Fern Dell, which was again used to portrayed the Monastery of the Kai garden on Bajor . Another section of the Griffith Park, the bird sanctuary, was used to film O'Brien's decoy scenes in the episode " Paradise ". ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion (p. ? ))

For the episode " Shadowplay " the production team returned to Bronson Canyon to shoot exterior scenes around the village. ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion (p. ? ))

As the compound of the Albino on Secarus IV , a large house designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright , located in Pasadena was used while the interior shots were filmed on Paramount Stage 18 . The blown up miniature of the house, created by Dan Curry 's team was filmed on the top of Paramount's Van Ness parking structure. ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion (p. ? ))

Several exterior scenes from Sisko's and Quark's camping trip into the Gamma Quadrant on an unnamed planet where they met Eris were filmed again at Griffith Park's bird sanctuary. ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion (p. ? ))

For the third season episode " Meridian ", the production team returned to Huntington Garden in San Marino which was used to portray the exterior shots on the planet Meridian . ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion (p. 187)) Location filming took place on Monday 26 September 1994 with actors Terry Farrell and Brett Cullen and Stunt Coordinator Dennis Madalone .

San Francisco 's Sanctuary Districts in the episodes " Past Tense, Part I " and " Past Tense, Part II " were filmed at the New York Street on Paramount 's back lot and were the largest exterior shows in Deep Space Nine 's history according to Steve Oster . ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion (p. ? ))

For the episode " Shakaar ", Bronson Canyon returned as the location, but as the surface of Bajor and for the exterior shots of Shakaar Edon 's farm house. ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion (p. ? ))

The hellish Soledad Canyon was again used to portray the desert like surface of Dozaria for the fourth season episode " Indiscretion ". Producer Steve Oster and director LeVar Burton both remembered the extreme heat during shooting. ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion (p. ? ))

For the episode " Little Green Men ", Paramount Pictures' construction department headquarters, the Paramount Wood Mill , was used to portray Hangar 18 , a military base on Earth. The Mill was located near Paramount Stage 18 on the Paramount lot. ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion (p. ? ))

" Paradise Lost " was an episode which led the characters back to Earth to visit the Starfleet Headquarters . For these scenes the Tillman Water Reclamation Plant , 6100 Woodley Avenue, Van Nuys, Los Angeles, California, including its park was again used to portray the Starfleet location. ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion (p. ? )) [15]

The exterior shots of the Teplan homeworld 's main city were shot on location at a mountaintop in the northwest corner of the San Fernando Valley . After art director Randy McIlvain and his team completed the set of the town with twenty foot walls it started to rain and the water-based paint was washed off and no electrical equipment could be used. The sets had to be rebuilt what was leading the shooting and director René Auberjonois off schedule. ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion (p. ? ))

Just one episode later, " To the Death ", director LeVar Burton and the production team went out to use Griffith Park's bird sanctuary again, this time as the wooden surface of Vandros IV . Because the team only had one day filming on location several close-ups were later filmed on the sound stage with trees in the background. B.C. Cameron also remembered Burton and herself visiting the location at the day before and the only way up to this location was using golf carts. ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion (p. ? ))

For the second episode of the fifth season , " The Ship ", the production team went back to Soledad Canyon to film the scenes with the crashed Jem'Hadar ship on Torga IV . Again it was like the air temperature was over 100 degrees and director Kim Friedman and assistant director Louis Race remembered the unique set of the crash-landed ship. ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion (p. ? ))

" Nor the Battle to the Strong " featured the Bronson Canyon again, this time as surface of Ajilon Prime . ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion (p. ? ))

The Malibu beach was used to portray the holiday planet Risa for the episode " Let He Who Is Without Sin... ". ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion (p. ? ))

Mount Whitney in central California, near the city Lone Pine, was chosen to be the location for the episode " The Ascent " in which Odo and Quark crash-landed on an uninhabitable planet in the Gamma Quadrant. Steve Oster chose this location since he took an annual trip there. Oster also led the crew to an old US Forestry Service road and the director dubbed the location "Steve's Rock". ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion (p. ? ))

For the episode " Children of Time " the Ahmanson Ranch out near Ventura, California was used to stand in for the exterior scenes on Gaia . ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion (p. ? ))

For the episode " Rocks and Shoals ", part of the sixth season opening arc, the crew went to Sun Valley in the north of Los Angeles and filmed the battle and beach sequences in a rock quarry. The wider view of the ocean was later added in post production. ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion (p. ? ))

The Paramount Pictures back lot came again into the series as the location of 1953 New York in the episode " Far Beyond the Stars ". ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion (p. ? ))

For the episode " Change of Heart " the production crew thought about a location shooting because of the story between Dax and Worf who crash-landed in a jungle vegetation. Griffith Park's Fern Dell and the nearby Angeles National Forest were considered, but because of the effect heavy opening story arc of the season and very detailed episodes such as " Far Beyond the Stars " the crew and the greens department filled Paramount Stage 5 with all of their trees and plants and used the sound stage instead of the outdoor location. ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion (p. ? ))

" Time's Orphan "'s picnic scene of the O'Brien's was filmed at Malibu State Park , which was used as location for productions such as Planet of the Apes and M.A.S.H. ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion (p. ? ))

The desert scenes for the seventh season episode " Shadows and Symbols " were shot in Lancaster , California near Palmdale at the Club Ed, 42848 150th Street East Lancaster on 20 July 1998 and 21 July 1998 . The actors and crew resided at the local Holiday Inn hotel while the main actors, Avery Brooks , Cirroc Lofton , Nicole de Boer , and Brock Peters filmed their scenes finding the orb, the photo doubles Steve Wilson , Jennifer Berlant , Todd Slayton , and John Lendale Bennett filmed their walk across the sand dunes in the second unit. ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion (p. ? ); call sheets and location map)

For the holographic baseball field scenes in the episode " Take Me Out to the Holosuite ", Steve Oster was able to strike a deal with the Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, a campus facility near the ocean. ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion (p. ? ))

" Emissary " ( Season 1 )
" In the Hands of the Prophets "
" The Homecoming " ( Season 2 )
" The Circle "
" Paradise "
" Shadowplay "
" Blood Oath "
" The Jem'Hadar "
" Meridian " ( Season 3 )
" Past Tense, Part I "
" Past Tense, Part II "
" Shakaar "
" Indiscretion " ( Season 4 )
" Little Green Men "
" Paradise Lost "
" The Quickening "
" To the Death "
" The Ship " ( Season 5 )
" Nor the Battle to the Strong "
" Let He Who Is Without Sin... "
" The Ascent "
" Children of Time "
" Rocks and Shoals " ( Season 6 )
" Far Beyond the Stars "
" Time's Orphan "
" Shadows and Symbols " ( Season 7 )
" Take Me Out to the Holosuite "

Star Trek: Voyager [ ]

The pilot episode of Star Trek: Voyager , " Caretaker ", was the first episode of the series which used several filming locations outside of the Paramount Studios. The first filming took place at the Los Angeles Convention Center which stood in for the Ocampa underground city on Tuesday 20 September 1994 and Wednesday 21 September 1994 . Re-shoots within this location were filmed on Monday 12 December 1994 . On Tuesday 27 September 1994 and Wednesday 28 September 1994 production went to the El Mirage Dry Lake Bed to film the scenes at the Kazon-Ogla camp . ( On Location with the Kazons , VOY Season 1 DVD special feature)

The third filming location for the pilot was Paddison Farm in Norwalk which was used to portray the farm seen aboard the Caretaker's array . Filming took place on Tuesday 4 October 1994 and Wednesday 5 October 1994 . The fourth and final filming location for "Caretaker" was Griffith Park which was chosen to represent the construction site at the New Zealand Penal Settlement . Filming took place on Thursday 6 October 1994 . ( A Vision of the Future - Star Trek: Voyager , p. 292)

The Tillman Water Reclamation Plant again showed up as a power plant on the unnamed planet in the episode " Time and Again ". According to the call sheet, location filming took place on Tuesday 8 November 1994 .

Outdoor scenes in the teaser of " State of Flux " were filmed at Bronson Caves in Bronson Canyon . [16] (X) Location filming took place on Wednesday 1 February 1995 and included the hillside as well as the inside of the caves as described on the episode's call sheet.

Parts of Bronson Canyon were again used for " The 37's ". The scenes on the unnamed planet in the Delta Quadrant and most of the scenes involving the first landing of the USS Voyager on a planet were filmed in Bronson Canyon, near Hollywood. ( VOY Season 2 DVD , trivia text version of "The 37's" )

Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park was again used as a location, for the episode " Initiations ". [17]

The subway station scenes in " Non Sequitur " including Garrett Wang , Robert Duncan McNeill , and Tom Morga were filmed at Paramount 's New York Streets backlot. [18] (X)

The Q Continuum scenes in " Death Wish " were filmed at Club Ed in Lancaster.

The episodes " Basics, Part I " and " Basics, Part II " were both partly filmed at Lone Pine, Inyo County. [19]

Location filming for " Future's End " and " Future's End, Part II " took place in several areas of Los Angeles , most notably including the Santa Monica Pier and Griffith Observatory . Furthermore, the teaser of "Future's End, Part II" was filmed on the Paramount Pictures lot, with the Paramount Administration Building appearing in the background of some shots. ( Star Trek: Voyager Companion )

The outside civil war scenes of " The Q and the Grey " were filmed in Griffith Park. ( Star Trek Monthly issue 27 , p. 61)

For the fourth season opening episode, " Scorpion, Part II ", the second unit filmed two short scenes on the grassy area in front of the Paramount Administration Building . The scene, a flashback into the youth of Seven of Nine , was filmed with actors David Anthony Marshall , Nikki Tyler , and Erica Bryan on Thursday 17 July 1997 .

For the third filmed episode of the fourth season, " Nemesis ", the production spent two days at the Warner Bros. backlot , filming scenes at the "Jungle set". On Monday 23 June 1997 , and Tuesday, 24 June 1997 , this location stood in as the surface of a planet in the Delta Quadrant . A whole set, the Larhana settlement , was built at this location. Beside main cast members Robert Beltran and Tim Russ , a group of guest actors, background performers, and stunt performers started filming at 7:15 am. Lisa White worked as location manager on this episode.

For the production of the fourth season episode " Concerning Flight ", the Boyle Bros. Ranch in Chatsworth stood in as the landscape outside of the city on an alien planet . It was filmed on Monday 15 September 1997 and a map was attached to the call sheet for this day. The following day, Tuesday 16 September 1997 , the production went on location to the LA DWP Valley Generating Station which stood in as Tau 's storage facility. A map was also attached to the call sheet.

The Japanese Garden , Woodley Avenue Park, between Victory Boulevard and Burbank Boulevard, 6100 Woodley Avenue, Van Nuys in the San Fernando Vally California was again used to portray the Starfleet Academy parks in the episode " In the Flesh ". [20]

Paramount's New York Streets backlot was again used for the episode " 11:59 ". [21] (X)

Beach scenes in the season seven installment " Inside Man " were filmed on the Leo Carrillo State Beach in Los Angeles County. [22]

The jungle scenes in the Hirogen training facility in the seventh season episode " Flesh and Blood " were filmed at the Warner Bros. backlot in late August 2000 . Again, Lisa White served as location scout. The call sheets for the episode featured the notes "Rain or Shine" and "Be Prepared for summer weather, bugs, bees and other natural occurrences".

Other locations include the Bronson Caves in Bronson Canyon, Griffith Park, Los Angeles and Burbank, Los Angeles County. [23]

For " Natural Law ", production used Griffith Park as jungle surface of Ledos and filmed scenes on location on Wednesday 21 February 2001 .

" Caretaker " ( Season 1 )
" Time and Again "
" State of Flux "
" The 37's " ( Season 2 )
" Initiations "
" Non Sequitur "
" Death Wish "
" Resolutions "
" Basics, Part I "
" Basics, Part II " ( Season 3 )
" Future's End "
" Future's End, Part II "
" The Q and the Grey "
" Scorpion, Part II " ( Season 4 )
" Nemesis "
" Concerning Flight "
" The Killing Game "
" In the Flesh " ( Season 5 )
" Fair Haven " ( Season 6 )
" Memorial "
" Spirit Folk "
" Inside Man " ( Season 7 )
" Flesh and Blood "
" Natural Law "

Star Trek: Enterprise [ ]

The pilot episode " Broken Bow " features the city Malibu in three scenes which were filmed on 19 June 2001 . Malibu stood in for Hoshi Sato 's exterior classroom in Brazil and the surrounding area and for the flashback scenes on the beach. Another location was the city Bakersfield , which stood in for Broken Bow . The scenes involving the Klingon Klaang , the silo explosion, and the meeting with farmer Moore which were filmed on 12 June 2001 and 13 June 2001 .

Rigel X scenes were filmed at the Redondo Power Plant and Hyperion Water Treatment Plant . (" These Are the Voyages... " text commentary )

For the episode " Strange New World ", the surface of Archer IV was filmed at the Golden Oak Ranch , while the cavern interiors were shot at Bronson Canyon . ( Star Trek Encyclopedia (4th ed., vol. 1, p. 38))

For the episode " Terra Nova ", production went for one day to the filming location Polsa Rosa Ranch which stood in as the surface of the planet Terra Nova . ( Call sheet )

The highway, seen in the episode " Carbon Creek ", is California State Route 138 around Crestline, California. The Main Street is largely Waters Drive, [24] along which are Johnnies Market and General Store, Madeline's cafe, the Crestline station of the Crest Forest Fire District, and the Pine Tree Bar and Grill [25] across the street from the Vulcans' apartment. [26] All the location shots were filmed near San Bernardino, California. Several back-up shots were later filmed on the Paramount backlot. [27] (X)

The production crew spent five days on location, shooting the episode " Marauders ". They went to a rock quarry in Ventura County , northwest of Los Angeles, to shoot the scenes at the mining colony including two dozens of extras and a few Klingon stuntmen. [28] (X)

For practicing climbing scenes for the episode " The Breach ", stunt coordinator Vince Deadrick, Jr. brought Connor Trinneer , Anthony Montgomery , and Dominic Keating to Stoney Point in the northwest of Los Angeles County. Later they've continued to practice and learned the rappelling techniques at a thirty-foot climbing wall on a private location. The actual scenes in the episode were later filmed on the Paramount sound stage. [29] (X)

The deleted scenes including Chinatown and the Chinese restaurant in the episode " The Expanse ", where Jonathan Archer and Becky met in were filmed at Paramount 's New York Streets backlot which was also used to portray the space in front of Starfleet Headquarters . [30] (X)

For the season 3 opening episode a short scene was filmed at the Paramount Theatre which stood in as Florida location during Trip Tucker 's nightmare. [31] (X)

" North Star " was the first episode of the third season which used a fully outdoor location. The production crew used the Western Town of the Universal Studios backlot as the location of the town and remained there during their seven days schedule. The Western Town set includes the main street, a livery stable, the schoolhouse, and the saloon. For one scene a shuttlepod set dressing was brought into the Western Town. [32] (X)

For the episode " Carpenter Street " the production crew and actors Scott Bakula , Jolene Blalock , and Leland Orser filmed their scenes in downtown Los Angeles which stood in as Detroit . After these scenes the team went to the Lacy Street Production Center near Dodger Stadium , a studio northwest of downtown. It included all the exterior scenes in the Carpenter Street and the nearby rooftops and dark alleys. For the final days, Paramount's New York Street backlot was used for filming at the same location where Marlon Brando 's character was shot in the movie The Godfather . [33] (X)

The final day of shooting for the episode " Storm Front ", ( 29 July 2004 ), was done at Sable Ranch in Canyon Country, near Santa Clarita in the north of Los Angeles which stood in as the wood. [34] (X) [35] (X) Prior scenes were filmed at Paramount's New York Streets backlot, which was turned into a Nazi-occupied New York. Several places of the New York Streets backlot may look familiar as they were used in previous episodes, including TNG : " Time's Arrow ", VOY : " 11:59 ", VOY : " Non Sequitur ", and ENT : " Carpenter Street ". [36] (X) [37] (X)

Shooting for the episode " Storm Front, Part II " began 21 July 2004 , and the second day of shooting on the episode took place at Griffith Park , in Los Angeles, California. It was a short day, only 6.5 hours long, and came in well under budget. Two scenes were done featuring Scott Bakula , Connor Trinneer , Anthony Montgomery , Jack Gwaltney , and several extras as Nazis and MACOs. [38] (X) The Paramount New York Streets backlot was again used to portray New York. [39] (X)

The scenes in the Vulcan's Forge in the episode " The Forge " were filmed at an industrial site in Simi Valley , Ventura County , in the northwest of Los Angeles. The location shooting included two days and actors Scott Bakula , Jolene Blalock , and Michael Nouri . The location used is owned by the mining company P.W. Gillibrand and was later enhanced in post production. [40] (X)

For the episode " Affliction " the story was placed on Earth in San Francisco, near Madame Chang's Mandarin Cafe , which was actually filmed on the Paramount lot between the studio's Administration building and another building which was also used as the high school in Happy Days . [41] (X)

The Paramount Wood Mill was used as location for the episodes " Demons " and " Terra Prime " for scenes in which Lieutenant Reed met Harris in an alley near the San Francisco Bay . [42] (X) For the same episodes the Paramount Theater was used again. This time it portrayed the Assembly Hall of Starfleet Command during the interstellar conference. The Paramount Theater was also the place where the first screenings for several Trek series were held, including the Enterprise episodes " Broken Bow " and " Storm Front ". [43] (X)

On day of shooting for the episode " Home " was done on location. For the scene in which the characters of Scott Bakula and Ada Maris go on a climbing trip, the Malibu Creek State Park filled in as location. [44] (X)

Another location was the Valley of Enchantment, San Bernardino National Forest, California. [45]

" Broken Bow " ( Season 1 )
" Strange New World "
" Terra Nova "
" Desert Crossing "
" Carbon Creek " ( Season 2 )
" Marauders "
" The Expanse "
" The Xindi " ( Season 3 )
" North Star "
" Carpenter Street "
" Storm Front " ( Season 4 )
" Storm Front, Part II "
" Cold Station 12 "
" The Forge "
" Affliction "
" Terra Prime "

Star Trek: Discovery [ ]

The Jordan filming location

Star Trek: Discovery is the first Star Trek series filmed outside of California, at the Pinewood Toronto Studios in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. [46]

Filming for the first season took place between January 2017 and October 2017 , and for the second season between April 2018 and December 2018 , and for the third season between July 2019 and February 2020 . Filming for the fourth season began in November 2020 and finished in August 2021 . Filming for the upcoming fifth season began in June 2022 and wrapped in November 2022 . [47] [48]

In the pilot episode , " The Vulcan Hello ", Wadi Rum, the largest desert canyon in Jordan was used to portray the early scene on the surface of the Crepusculan homeworld including lead actress Sonequa Martin-Green and Michelle Yeoh . [49] The spacewalk sequence and fight scene between Martin-Green and Justin Howell was shot at Paramount Stage 16 under Stunt Coordinator Joel Kramer . ( AT : " O Discovery, Where Art Thou? ", Information from Joel Kramer )

The scenes on Vulcan in " Lethe " were filmed at the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto. [50]

Kelso Conservation Area in " Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum "

The scenes on Pahvo in " Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum " were filmed at the Hilton Falls and Kelso Conservation Areas in Milton, Ontario, Canada. [51]

The scenes on Harlak in " The Wolf Inside " and on Talos IV in " If Memory Serves " were filmed at the Lafarge Quarry outside Toronto. ( AT : " The Wolf Inside ")

The scenes in Paris in " Will You Take My Hand? " were filmed at the Vaughan City Hall in Toronto.

The wreckage of the USS Hiawatha in " Brother " and the facility on Essof IV in " The Red Angel " and " Perpetual Infinity " were filmed at the defunct Hearn Generation Plant in Toronto's Port Lands. [52]

Sarek and Amanda 's house as depicted in " Brother ", " Light and Shadows ", and " If Memory Serves " is the Integral House in Toronto. [53]

Ball's Falls & Historic Village in " New Eden "

The New Eden colony scenes in " New Eden " were filmed at Ball's Falls & Historic Village in Lincoln, Ontario, Canada. [54]

Saru's village in" The Sound of Thunder " (as well as the Star Trek: Short Treks episode " The Brightest Star ") was filmed in Scarborough Bluffs Park in Toronto. [55]

The beach scenes in Airiam 's flashbacks in " Project Daedalus " were filmed at Cherry Beach Park at Port Lands, Toronto. [56]

Some scenes on Boreth in " Through the Valley of Shadows " were filmed at Knox College , a campus of the University of Toronto . [57]

The scene of Sarek and Amanda at the beach in " Such Sweet Sorrow " was filmed at Woodbine Beach , Toronto. [58]

The exterior shots of Hima in " That Hope Is You, Part 1 " and the exterior shots of " the Colony " in " Far From Home " were filmed in Iceland . [59] Locations in Iceland include the Eldhraun Lava Field , the Goðafoss and Seljalandsfoss waterfalls, Lake Kleifarvatn Beach , the Kerlingardalsvegur clifftop, the crater of the Hverfjall volcano, and the Sólheimajökull glacier. [60]

The exteriors of Sanctuary Four in " That Hope Is You, Part 1 " were filmed at the Rockwood Conservation Area in Guelph/Eramosa township, Ontario. [61]

The interiors of Mercantile in " That Hope Is You, Part 1 " were filmed again at the Hearn Generation Plant. [62]

The former Starfleet Academy park exteriors for " People of Earth " were filmed at Woodbine Beach.

The exteriors of the Trill homeworld in " Forget Me Not " were filmed at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington, Ontario. [63]

The exteriors and interiors of the Hunhau salvage yard in " Scavengers " were filmed at Stelco 's steel factory in Hamilton, Ontario. [64]

The interiors of the holographic environment on the KSF Khi'eth in " Su'Kal " and " That Hope Is You, Part 2 " were partly filmed at the historic former prison Kingston Penitentiary (now serving as a museum) in Kingston, Ontario. [65] [66]

The Lyrek forest exteriors in " Under the Twin Moons " were filmed at Claireville Conservation Area , a large natural park near Brampton, Ontario. [67] [68]

" The Vulcan Hello " ( Season 1 )
" Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum "
" The Wolf Inside "
" Will You Take My Hand? "
" Brother " ( Season 2 )
" New Eden "
" The Sound of Thunder "
" Light and Shadows "
" If Memory Serves "
" Project Daedalus "
" The Red Angel "
" Perpetual Infinity "
" Through the Valley of Shadows "
" Such Sweet Sorrow "
" That Hope Is You, Part 1 " ( Season 3 )
" Far From Home "
" People of Earth "
" Forget Me Not "
" Scavengers "
" The Sanctuary "
" Terra Firma, Part 1 "
" Terra Firma, Part 2 "
" That Hope Is You, Part 2 "
" Kobayashi Maru " ( Season 4 )
" All Is Possible "
" The Galactic Barrier "
" Rosetta "
" Under the Twin Moons " ( Season 5 )
" Face the Strange "

Star Trek: Short Treks [ ]

Saru's village in " The Brightest Star " (as well as in the Star Trek: Discovery episode " The Sound of Thunder ") was filmed in Scarborough Bluffs Park in Toronto. [69]

The spaceport and the interiors of Harry Mudd's ship in " The Escape Artist " were filmed at the defunct Hearn Generation Plant in Toronto's Port Lands. [70]

Scenes for " Children of Mars ", including the school's central hall and library, were filmed at the John H. Daniels building at the University of Toronto. [71]

The shuttle stop in the same episode was filmed at Sherbourne Common park in Toronto. [72]

" The Brightest Star "
" The Escape Artist "
" Children of Mars "

Star Trek: Picard [ ]

Unlike Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , Picard was filmed in California, however, instead of the Paramount Pictures lot in Hollywood, the series was housed at the soundstages of Santa Clarita Studios in Santa Clarita. [73]

Principal photography on the first season started in April 2019 and wrapped in August 2019 . The second and third seasons were filmed back-to-back, from mid February 2021 to early September 2021 and early September 2021 to early March 2022 respectively.

Sunstone Winery in " Remembrance "

The Sunstone Winery in Santa Ynez, California was used to film the Château Picard scenes in the first season episodes " Remembrance ", " Maps and Legends ", " The End is the Beginning ", and " Absolute Candor ", and the second season episodes " The Star Gazer ", " Penance ", " Watcher ", " Two of One ", " Monsters ", " Hide and Seek ", and " Farewell ". [74]

The Starfleet Headquarters and Starfleet Archive Museum exteriors and interiors in " Remembrance ", " Maps and Legends " and " The End is the Beginning " were filmed at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California, and at the College of the Canyons Valencia university campus in Santa Clarita. [75] [76]

Anaheim Convention Center in " Remembrance "

The Daystrom Institute scenes in " Remembrance " were filmed at the Sony Pictures Plaza in Culver City, California.

The exteriors of the Daystrom Institute seen in " Remembrance ", " The End is the Beginning ", and " Nepenthe " were filmed at the Golden Cove semicircular beach in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, and enchanced with a digital matte painting . [77]

Golden Cove semicircular beach in " Remembrance "

The exteriors of Raffi Musiker 's home in " Maps and Legends " and " The End is the Beginning " were filmed at the classic Star Trek location, Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park . This was the first time that the location portrayed "itself" in Star Trek .

The Vashti colony exteriors in " Absolute Candor " were filmed at the Mexican Street backlot at Universal Studios in Los Angeles. Filming took place between 3 June 2019 and 6 June 2019 . [78] [79]

The exterior establishing shots of Stardust City in " Stardust City Rag " were filmed at the Hollywood CityWalk promenade, located next to Universal Studios, and were heavily enchanced with CGI elements.

The Nightbox interiors in " Stardust City Rag " were filmed at Jillian's Bowling Alley at Hollywood CityWalk. [80]

The exteriors and interiors of the Troi-Riker house in " Nepenthe " were also filmed at the Universal backlot, at a log cabin built for the 1988 film The Great Outdoors , and utilized in other productions as well. Filming took place between 2 August 2019 and 9 August 2019 . [81] [82]

The Aia surface exteriors in " Broken Pieces " were filmed at the Blue Cloud Movie Ranch in Santa Clarita on 2 July 2019 . [83]

Malibu in " Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 1 "

The Coppelius Station scenes in " Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 1 " and " Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2 " were filmed on location in Malibu at a private residence at 2050 Rambla Pacifico Street. [84] [85] [86]

The Starfleet Academy interiors in " The Star Gazer ", and the scenes set in the Presidental Palace and at the Eradication Day rally in " Penance " were filmed at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles. ( TRR : " Penance ")

The SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California was also used to depict Starfleet Academy in " The Star Gazer ". [87]

The Raritan IV scenes in " The Star Gazer " were filmed at the Ahmanson Theatre & Mark Taper Forum , at West Temple Street, Los Angeles. [88]

The Los Angeles street exteriors near 10 Forward Avenue in " The Star Gazer " (in the 25th century ), " Watcher ", and " Monsters " (in the 21st century ) were filmed at a backlot at Santa Clarita Studios. [89]

Wilshire Grand Center in " Assimilation "

The Markridge Industrial Tower exteriors and interiors in " Assimilation " were filmed at Wilshire Grand Center , the tallest building in Los Angeles, located at South Figueroa Street. [90]

The LAPD headquarters in " Watcher " and Los Angeles street scenes ( Rios ' beam down location) in " Assimilation " were filmed at Los Angeles Center Studios, a film facility on West 5th Street, downtown Los Angeles. The studio has 6 soundtages and several standing sets, including a police station. [91]

The exteriors of LAPD headquarters were also filmed at Los Angeles Center Studios. The sign for the studios was digitally replaced with one for the police department headquarters.

MacArthur Park in " Watcher "

Seven of Nine 's beam down location and the place where she meets Raffaela Musiker in " Assimilation ", and the site where Guinan takes Picard to meet Tallinn in " Watcher " were filmed at MacArthur Park in the Westlake neighborhood of Los Angeles.

The car chase scenes in " Watcher " were filmed on the LA Live Way, between West Road and Olympic Boulevard, between Chick Hearn Court and West Road, and on West Road between LA Live and Georgia Street, in downtown Los Angeles. [92] [93] [94]

Hotel Intercontinental Los Angeles Downtown in " Watcher "

The Jackson Roykirk Plaza exteriors in " Watcher " were filmed at the hotel Intercontinental Los Angeles Downtown , which is located in the above mentioned Wilshire Grand Center. The hotel can also be seen in the background in " Assimilation " when Seven and Raffi walk towards Markridge Industrial Tower.

The Europa Gala interior scenes in " Fly Me to the Moon " and " Two of One " were filmed at the Millennium Biltimore Hotel's Rendezvous Court and Main Galleria on South Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles. [95] [96] [97] [98] [99]

The exteriors of the gala in " Two of One " were filmed at the Fox Theater in Westwood Village, Los Angeles. [100]

The scenes at Deacon's bar in " Monsters " and " Mercy " were filmed at the Five Star Bar located at South Main Street in downtown Los Angeles. [101]

The scene where Seven and Raffi start their search for the Borg -infected Agnes Jurati in " Mercy " was filmed in front of the Ronald Reagan State Building at the historical core of downtown Los Angeles.

Scenes of the young Martin Wells accidentally meeting two Vulcans in " Mercy " were filmed at the Golden Oak Ranch aka Disney Ranch. [102]

The meeting of Kore Soong and Wesley Crusher in " Farewell " were filmed at Echo Park , northwest of downtown Los Angeles. [103]

The exteriors of District Six and District Seven on M'talas Prime in the third season episodes " The Next Generation ", " Disengage ", " Seventeen Seconds ", and " Imposters " were filmed at the "Third World Town" backlot at the Blue Cloud Movie Ranch in Santa Clarita.

" Remembrance " ( Season 1 )
" Maps and Legends "
" The End is the Beginning "
" Absolute Candor "
" Stardust City Rag "
" Nepenthe "
" Broken Pieces "
" Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 1 "
" Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2 "
" The Star Gazer " ( Season 2 )
" Penance "
" Assimilation "
" Watcher "
" Fly Me to the Moon "
" Two of One "
" Monsters "
" Hide and Seek "
" Farewell "
" The Next Generation " ( Season 3 )
" Disengage "
" Seventeen Seconds "
" Imposters "

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds [ ]

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is filmed mainly at CBS Stages Canada in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. Filming on the first season commenced in February 2021 and finished in July 2021 . Production on the second season started in early- February 2022 and wrapped in late- June 2022 . Production on the third season began in December 2023 , after it was delayed for seven months due to the Writers Guild of America and Screen Actors Guild strikes. [104] [105] [106]

The series also heavily utilized a virtual production studio built in an industrial warehouse in Brampton, Ontario, having spent more than 100 filming days there in the first season. [107] Notable locations created in the virtual studio include the Valeo Beta V exteriors in " All Those Who Wander " and the Rigel VII exteriors in " Among the Lotus Eaters ".

Like Star Trek: Discovery , Strange New Worlds mostly utilizes locations in the vicinity of Toronto and Mississauga and elsewhere in Ontario province for location shooting.

Ontario Place in " Ghosts of Illyria "

The outdoor scenes set in Bear Creek , Montana in " Strange New Worlds " were filmed a little more than a hour north of Toronto. [108]

The Kiley research institution and plaza scenes in " Strange New Worlds " were filmed at York University in Toronto, at Vari Hall and Central Square respectively. [109]

Parkwood Estate gardens in " Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach "

The exteriors of the abandoned Hetemit IX colony in " Ghosts of Illyria " were filmed at Ontario Place , an entertainment venue, event venue, and park in Toronto, located on the shore of Lake Ontario. [110]

The exteriors and interiors of the Majalan main palace in " Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach " were filmed at Parkwood Estate in Oshawa, Ontario, the former residence of Samuel McLaughlin, founder of General Motors Canada and his family, currently a National Historic Site open to the public. [111]

Much of " Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow " was filmed on location in Toronto, which, uniquely, was actually portraying 21st-century Toronto. Akiva Goldsman explained that the story had originally been set in New York, but that filming in the real New York would have been too expensive. They considered using Toronto locations to portray New York, but " then we sort of thought, “Huh, why don’t we just let Toronto be Toronto? " [112] Locations portraying themselves include Yonge-Dundas Square , the Roots store in Toronto Eaton Centre , the Toronto waterfront in front of the Harbourfront Centre (including the ships Kajama and Northern Spirit ), The Lakeview restaurant, and the Royal Ontario Museum . Car chases were filmed on King Street and Pecaut Square , and the aftermath of the Lake Ontario Bridge explosion was filmed in the Port Lands area. One of the few fictional locations in Toronto, the Noonien-Singh Institute for Cultural Advancement , was portrayed by The Royal Conservatory of Music . [113]

The Parnassus Beta colony exteriors in " Hegemony " were filmed in Pickering, Ontario, on a backlot set originally built for the Amazon Prime Video series Reacher . [114]

" Strange New Worlds " ( Season 1 )
" Children of the Comet "
" Ghosts of Illyria "
" Spock Amok "
" Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach "
" Ad Astra per Aspera " ( Season 2 )
" Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow "
" Lost in Translation "
" Hegemony "

Star Trek films [ ]

Star trek: the motion picture [ ].

The Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming stood in for the planet Vulcan between 8 August and 10 August 1978 . [115] [116] [117] Paramount's B Tank also served as a location for the Vulcan scenes. [118] (X)

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan [ ]

Special effect shooting of the Genesis Device explosion was filmed by the ILM crew at the Cow Palace stadium in Daly City , chosen for its very high ceiling. ( Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 3, Issue 5 , p. 26, [119] (X) , [120] (X) )

Second unit shots of Spock's coffin on the surface of the Genesis planet were filmed at the Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, California. ( Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 3, Issue 5 , p. 26)

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock [ ]

The scene placed on Vulcan, shortly before the fal-tor-pan ceremony on Mount Seleya , was filmed at the fountain of Occidental College , 1600 Campus Road at Alumni Avenue, Eagle Rock , City of Los Angeles, California. [121]

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home [ ]

The Voyage Home was filmed in large measure in the San Francisco Bay area in California. For example, the scene where Kirk just about gets hit by a car was filmed at the corner of Kearney, Pacific Avenue, and Columbus in downtown San Francisco [122] . The Cetacean Institute , where the humpback whales known as " George and Gracie " were located, is the Monterey Bay Aquarium located south of San Francisco in the city of Monterey, 886 Cannery Row. The parking lot for the Klingon Bird-of-Prey , the Golden Gate Park, is actually the Will Rogers State Park , 14253 Sunset Boulevard, Pacific Palisades in Los Angeles. For the planet Vulcan was again used the Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park , 10700 West Escondido Canyon Road, in Agua Dulce, in the high desert of Los Angeles. [123] Other locations in the movie were filmed on the USS Ranger in Alameda, Alameda County, Marin Headlands, Marin County, Oakland International Airport, Oakland, Alameda County, the Marin Drive near Fort Point at the Presidio of San Francisco, and the San Francisco locations Grant Avenue, Fresno Alley, Columbus and Mason, Golden Gate Bridge , and Marina Green. Underwater photography including the miniature whale models was filmed in a swimming pool at College of Marin in Indian Valley, Novato, Marin County. [124] The scenes at Plexicorp were filmed at Reynolds Polymer Technology Inc. (then Reynolds & Taylor, Inc.), 311 E. Alton Avenue, Santa Ana, Orange County. [125] Other locations in Southern California include the Centinela-Freeman Medical Center, 555 E. Hardy Street, Inglewood, Los Angeles County and the United States Naval Air Station North Island, Coronado, San Diego County. [126] [127]

The final scenes with the Bird-of-Prey in the water and the main cast jumping into the water was filmed at Paramount 's B Tank , a floodable parking lot of Paramount Pictures. ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion ( ? ed., p. ? ))

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier [ ]

The opening climbing sequences of The Final Frontier were filmed at Yosemite National Park in California, namely the El Capitan and Inspiration Point . The Owens Dry Lake in the Mojave Desert in Lone Pine , Inyo County , Alabama Hills in central California stood in as Nimbus III while Trona Pinnacles Recreation Lands , and an area in the Searles Dry Lake Bed in Trona, San Bernardino County , central California, was used as Sha Ka Ree . [128] [129] [130] [131]

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country [ ]

The Undiscovered Country had a few notable filming locations. Some of the Rura Penthe sequences were filmed in northern Alaska, which marked the first time Star Trek had been filmed outside of the state of California. Bob Crockett and his company Alaska Locations, Inc. served as location scout for these scenes which were filmed at the Knik Glacier, Chugach State Park, Valdez-Cordova Census Area. [132] [133] [134] [135]

In addition, internal and external shots for Camp Khitomer were filmed at the Brandeis-Bardin Institute , a religious retreat in Simi Valley , Ventura County in Southern California. [136] Additional shots, also for the matte painting, of Camp Khitomer were filmed at the Fireman's Fund Building in Novato, Marin County. [137]

The external shots of Rura Penthe were filmed at the Bronson Caves at Bronson Canyon, part of Griffith Park in Los Angeles, California. The interior shots of Rura Penthe were filmed on Paramount Stage 16 . ( David G. Trotti , ENT Season 2 DVD special "Enterprise Secrets") [138]

The Starfleet Headquarters briefing room scene was shot at the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood , 1760 N. Gower Street in Hollywood, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County. The scenes were filmed on Wednesday the 5 June 1991 and Thursday the 6 June 1991 . [139] [140]

Star Trek Generations [ ]

Silica Dome in the Valley of Fire State Park in Overton, Clark County, Las Vegas, Nevada was used as location of Veridian III , where the final scenes of the movie were also filmed, standing in as the location for the showdown. The place where Captain Kirk and Captain Picard first met was filmed at the Hart Flat Road in Keene, Kern County, central California and the owner received a new kitchen and staircase built for the movie, while the wide shot horse riding scenes with Kirk and Picard were filmed at William Shatner 's own farm in the Alabama Hills in Lone Pine, Inyo County, including his own horses. ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion ( ? ed., p. ? )) [141] [142] [143] [144]

The barn and horse jump of Shatner and Stewart was filmed at the ranch of late actor Noah Beery, Jr. . ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion ( ? ed., p. ? ))

The first scenes of the TNG crew aboard the holographic brig USS Enterprise where filmed aboard the Lady Washington a few miles offshore of Marina del Rey , Los Angeles. These scenes were filmed in five days and the anchors were dropped before sunup. ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion ( ? ed., p. ? ))

An elegant private mansion in Los Angeles, located at 465 South Grand Avenue, Pasadena, was used to portray the Nexus home of Captain Picard. ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion ( ? ed., p. ? )) [145]

Two weeks of the shooting were held at the Big Bear Mountain range in Los Angeles. [146]

Star Trek: First Contact [ ]

Scenes inside the missile complex housing Cochrane's Phoenix were filmed in four days at the Titan Missile Museum , 1580 West Duval Mine Road, Green Valley , Pima County , near Tucson, Arizona. The museum includes some memorabilia from the movie. ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion ( ? ed., p. ? )) [147] [148]

The second location shoot was in the Angeles National Forest in Los Angeles County, including its Charlton Flats, in the San Gabriel Mountains which stood in for the village scenes, consisting of fourteen huts, placed in Bozeman , Montana . The crew shot these scenes in two weeks of nighttime including the first contact sequence filled with dozens of extras. ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion ( ? ed., p. ? )) [149] [150]

The third and last location used of this film was an art deco restaurant in L.A.'s Union Station , 800 N. Alameda Street, Downtown, Los Angeles, California which was used to portray the Dixon Hill holodeck program dance hall. It was filled with ten musicians, fifteen stunt performers, and 120 background performers. ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion ( ? ed., p. ? )) [151] [152]

Star Trek: Insurrection [ ]

The wood and field scenes were filmed on the Ventura Farms and near Thousand Oaks . [153] [154] This shooting also included helicopter shots of the green area which were cut from the final movie. The scene between Anij and Captain Picard when she stopped the time was filmed at Ventura Farms. ( Star Trek: Insurrection (Special Edition) )

The Ba'ku village was built at Lake Sherwood , Westlake Village in Ventura County, near Thousand Oaks, and was the largest outdoor set ever planned for a Star Trek movie. ( Star Trek: Insurrection (Special Edition) ) ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion ( ? ed., p. ? )) [155]

The scenes on the Ba'ku lake and Data's steps into the water where the holoship was placed were filmed at the San Gabriel Dam , Azusa , Los Angeles County and at Convict Lake , Mammoth Lakes, Mono County in the Sierra Nevadas. ( Star Trek: Insurrection (Special Edition) ) [156]

Several scenes during the trail of the Ba'ku and the fights with the Son'a on the mountains were filmed at Mammoth Mountain , Lake Sabrina , and the town Mammoth Lakes , Mono County in California. ( Star Trek: Insurrection (Special Edition) )

Additional scenes were shot in Bishop , Inyo County. [157]

The close ups of Patrick Stewart, Donna Murphy , and Brent Spiner after their jumps into the water were filmed in Paramount's B Tank , a floodable parking lot at Paramount Pictures. ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion ( ? ed., p. ? ))

Star Trek Nemesis [ ]

Locations include the midway between El Mirage Dry Lake in El Mirage, San Bernardino County and the Edwards Air Force Base which stood in for Kolarus III on an eight-day location shoot and the east side of Lancaster, off Avenue C between 235th and the San Bernardino County line, Lancaster, Los Angeles County. [158] ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion ( ? ed., p. ? )) The areas near the town of Lancaster were close to Edwards Air Force Base and were used to represent Kolarus III. ( Information from Larry Nemecek )

Star Trek [ ]

Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park, 10700 West Escondido Canyon Road, near north Los Angeles was again used to portray the surface of the planet Vulcan. Scenes at the bar were filmed in an American Legion bar in Hollywood. The Oviatt Library at the California State University , Northridge and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco were used as Starfleet Academy, upgraded with digital technology and blue and green screens .

In the Long Beach City Hall , 333 West Ocean Boulevard Kirk and Spock faced the trial after Kirk cheated at the Kobayashi Maru test while the ice planet Delta Vega was recreated at the parking lot of the Dodger Stadium , 1000 Elysian Park Avenue, downtown Los Angeles which was also the location for the Romulan drill platform . [159]

Other locations include the Budweiser Brewery , Anheuser-Busch, Inc., 15800 Roscoe Boulevard, Van Nuys, California as the machine room of the Enterprise and the Long Beach Generating Station at Terminal Island as the machine room of the USS Kelvin . [160] The Long Beach Generating Station was previously used to film the prison scenes placed on Rura Penthe which were deleted from the final movie. ( Star Trek (Three disc Blu-ray) special "Starships" )

The aerial shots of Delta Vega were filmed at Alaska . The shots were provided by the company SouthCoastHelicopters.com . [161]

Further scenes were filmed in Bakersfield , Kern County, California which stood in as Iowa ; in Rose Hills Memorial Park, 3888 Workman Mill Road in Whittier, California, where the SkyRose Chapel was used as the building of the Vulcan High Council ; and the Pastoria Energy Facility in Lebec, Kern County, California, which was used for the Riverside Shipyard . [162] [163] [164]

Additional shots of the planet Vulcan were filmed in San Rafael Swell in Utah, and Hangar 1 was filmed in a hangar in Tustin, California. [165]

Star Trek Into Darkness [ ]

As of 16 November 2011, J.J. Abrams scouted a location on Hawaii as a possible jungle planet. Also, a museum in Los Angeles will stand-in as a "famous Star Trek location". [166]

The opening scene on the surface of Nibiru was originally the set which should be filmed on location on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. VFX should later change digitally all green plants and trees into red. But the digital change, plus filming and transportation became too expensive and the art directors were asked to find a possible location in Los Angeles. Finding a suitable jungle location failed and the set was completely built on the parking lot of Raleigh Studios in Playa Vista . [167]

Star Trek Beyond [ ]

The first Star Trek feature film to be primarily filmed outside California, Star Trek Beyond was primarily shot at Vancouver Film Studios in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Other locations in British Columbia were utilized for exterior filming. [168] [169] [170]

Between 25 June 2015 and 30 June 2015 , the production filmed scenes in Squamish Boulders , Squamish, British Columbia, depicting the surface of Altamid . Filming took place around the Kacodemon Boulder and Cave Boulder for the first three shooting days. On the fourth day filming took place south of the Black Dyke Boulder. [171]

In mid- August 2015 , the production filmed scenes at a large exterior set depicting the wreckage of the USS Franklin , along with a large green screen, built at Kent Hangar Field, west of Vancouver International Airport. [172] [173]

On 27 August 2015 and 29 August 2015 , Twitter users reported that Star Trek Beyond is filming at Triangle Road in Richmond, British Columbia, and at the Pitt River Quarries in Red Dear, British Columbia. [174] [175]

Aside from British Columbia, the production filmed on location in Dubai , in October 2015 . [176] [177] Filming locations included the desert reserve Platinum Heritage and the Dubai Central Park Towers ground in front of the Central Park Tower and the Platinum Tower. These locations represented Starbase Yorktown in the film. [178] [179] [180] [181] Principal photography wrapped in Dubai on Thursday 15 October 2015 . [182]

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