Every Trekkie the world over knows that the voyages of the Starship Enterprise have been filmed almost exclusively at western U.S. locations for the past five decades. So, put on your Starfleet uniform as Scotty beams you down to these five famous Star Trek filming locales that every Star Trek fan should definitely visit in the USA.
Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park, California
In the Star Trek series, the Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park with the triangular rock formation is located in the Sierra Pelona Mountains and played a crucial role befitting an alien planet. In the original TV series, this is where Captain Kirk fights the alien Gorn. The landscape appears often in various Star Trek TV shows. You must visit the park’s visitor center where hiking trail maps are available and the center also includes an exhibit about the many films and television series that have been shot amid the slanted sandstone slabs that you shouldn’t miss.
Griffith Park (Bronson Canyon) and Griffith Observatory, Los Angeles, California
The 1,740 hectares of mountainous, forested Griffith Park appear in every Star Trek TV series and is the most often utilised Trek setting outside of Hollywood’s Paramount Pictures Studios. The park’s rocky Bronson Canyon and its “caves” (man-made tunnels) have been used as a backdrop on several occasions, most famously in the film Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991). Though striking in and of themselves, they also boast a fabulous view of the Hollywood Sign. Bronson Canyon can be reached if, from Franklin Avenue in the city of Hollywood, you drive north on Canyon Drive for about 2 kilometers until it dead ends at a parking lot. From here it’s an easy 1.2-kilometer round-trip hike to the Bronson caves.
Next, you may also drive to the mountaintop Griffith Observatory planetarium, one of L.A.’s most recognizable buildings which has a theater named for Leonard Nimoy, also known as Mr. Spock. It boasts a plethora of attractions, including a Foucault pendulum, a Zeiss refracting telescope, a triple beam solar telescope, a Tesla coil, and a planetarium.
San Francisco, California
Presidio, next to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, served as Starfleet Command’s headquarters in the late television series and movies. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) presents a memorable twist as the crew of the Enterprise travels back in time to 1986 San Francisco. Filming took place in and around the city.Arriving in San Francisco, Captain Kirk nearly is run over by a taxi at the junction of Kearny Street, Pacific Avenue and Columbus Avenue, which you will find near Chinatown. At the Presidio, you must visit Fort Point National Historic Site, an 1861 U.S. Army fort at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge. Star Trek and Silicon Valley share a special bond: one is a fictional world full of technological wonders; the other is the nerve center of the industry actively making those futuristic technologies real.
Yosemite National Park, California
The Enterprise crew go on vacation to Northern California’s awesome Yosemite National Park. In Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) You can find Captain Kirk, Spock and Dr. McCoy camping among the Yosemite valley’s granite cliffs. You need to arrive in Yosemite Valley through the Wawona Tunnel via El Portal Road and stop at the Tunnel View Overlook for a wonderful view of Yosemite Valley. As you look out into the Valley from the overlook, El Capitan is to the left, to the right is Bridalveil Fall and at the far end of the Valley is Half Dome.
Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada
The Valley of Fire State Park which served as the last resting place of James Tiberius Kirk in Star Trek is located 84 kilometres northeast of Las Vegas, Nevada. It is a strikingly magnificent paradise of flaming red rock formations. This location doubled as the planet Veridian III in climactic scenes from Star Trek Generations (1994).
The movie was shot at Silica Dome, a sandstone mountain in the park’s northern area. For excellent views, you need to go past the visitor center towards the north a few kilometers on White Domes Road to the signed turnoffs for Rainbow Vista and Fire Canyon/Silica Dome.
