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Rampart Cave is 300m high in the walls of the beautiful and iconic Grand Canyon. Discovered in 1936 and full of animal dung it is an important research site. The cave shows how crucial...
Breaks Interstate Park is a bi-state state park in Kentucky and Virginia, with a five-mile-long canyon carved by the Russell Fork river. The park offers hiking, fishing, boating, rafting, rock climbing and other activities, as well as a visitor center and a lodge.
Apr 30, 2022 · We put together this Natural Wonders Road Trip through Virginia that visits some of the state's most stunning sites and features, including Luray Caverns, Crabtree Falls, Falling Springs Falls, Natural Bridge, and of course, the Grand Canyon of the South!
Dec 14, 2009 · Our Traveler’s Top Ten national park movies post was well-received, but we only scratched the surface. We’re digging deeper now. Like our previous list, this one will focus on motion pictures (not made-for-television films) with one or more scenes filmed in national parks.
- “North by Northwest”
- “Maine”
- “Close encounters of The Third Kind”
- “Into The Wild”
- “Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid”
- “Forrest Gump”
- “Rocky IV”
- “Planet of The Apes”
- “The Lost World: Jurassic Park”
- “The Shining”
Mount Rushmore National Memorial, South Dakota
This classic film features a memorable chase across the faces of Mount Rushmore’s presidents, but the famous scene was actually filmed in a California studio. Alfred Hitchcock had fantasized about Cary Grant sliding down Lincoln’s nose in an attempt to escape his pursuers. Park officials, concerned over damage to the memorial and its image, allowed filming on the condition that no violent scene be filmed near the sculptures or even on a mockup of the sculptures. Hitchcock did film some outdoo...
Appalachian National Scenic Trail, Maine
The setting is so central to the plot of this brand-new movie that for the first 10 minutes of the film, not a word is spoken as the camera follows the main characters on the Appalachian National Scenic Trail. The movie, which was shot primarily in the highlands of southwestern Virginia, is a very personal endeavor for Matthew Brown, the director. He discovered the AT during a Boy Scout trip to Roan Mountain in eastern Tennessee when he was 11, and he quickly decided that he’d thru-hike the t...
Devils Tower National Monument, Wyoming
If aliens are going to make a landing and invite humans to attend, they might as well pick a spectacular backdrop for the event. The moment the character played by Richard Dreyfuss figures out that a series of numbers broadcast by UFOs indicates the coordinates of Devils Tower, all of the movie’s main characters converge to the national monument for a momentous meeting with extraterrestrials. “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” was a huge hit at the box office, and the movie’s success raised...
Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska
“Into the Wild,” Sean Penn’s movie based on Jon Krakauer’s book about the travels and untimely death of Christopher McCandless, was shot in a vast array of locations across the country, but the Denali wilderness provides the backdrop for the movie’s tragic denouement. Penn shot scenes in Denali National Park and Preserve, though McCandless died just outside the northern border of the park, in an abandoned bus that has since become a pilgrimage destination for people moved by his story. The hi...
Zion National Park, Utah
Robert Redford not only starred as the Sundance Kid, he also helped choose the location for the 1969 Western. Redford was already a longtime resident of Provo Canyon near Salt Lake City at that time (the Sundance Mountain Resort and the Sundance Film Festival were later named after Redford’s role in the movie), and he touted Southern Utah’s appeal to the film’s producers. Producer John Foreman was convinced: “This area of Utah has a remarkable variety of scenic settings for our picture,” he s...
National Mall, Washington, D.C.
Robert Zemeckis’ movie includes many pivotal moments, but what Forrest Gump himself describes as the happiest moment of his life takes place on the National Mall. Gump, an involuntary participant in an anti-war rally, just finishes his impromptu (and inaudible) speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial when his friend Jenny recognizes him and yells his name. He reciprocates, and the two run toward each other in the Reflecting Pool and reunite in a moving embrace. During his subsequent three...
Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming
The Rocky Mountains were not named after a fictional Philadelphia boxer, but they do feature prominently in the fourth installment of the “Rocky” franchise. Grand Teton National Park and its peaks stand in for Siberia in Rocky’s extended training scene as he prepares for his fight against Drago, a Soviet boxer who killed Rocky’s friend in a previous bout. While Drago’s preparation makes full use of high-tech equipment, Rocky prefers to cross icy streams, move rocks around, lift a horse carria...
Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Arizona and Utah
Created after the damming of the Colorado River in 1963, Lake Powell was just a few years old when the “Planet of the Apes” producers chose the location as the landing site for the astronaut crew. The area around the lake, which would later form the core of the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, made a good substitute for the inhospitable planet that Taylor and his fellow astronauts thought they had discovered. It is only when Taylor, played by Charlton Heston, sees another national park s...
Redwood National and State Parks, California
In this sequel to the original “Jurassic Park” movie, dinosaurs are roaming a fictional island off the coast of Costa Rica, but fans can find the very real location of one of the film’s memorable scenes in the Fern Canyon of Redwood National and State Parks in Northern California. The canyon’s walls are covered with several species of ferns, an ancient group of plants that traces its history to the time of the dinosaurs. Dieter Stark, one of the minor characters in “Lost World,” gets, well, l...
Glacier National Park, Montana
In this classic thriller, Jack Torrance and his family have agreed to be the winter caretakers of the Overlook Hotel in the mountains of Colorado. Astute viewers will notice, though, that the road the Torrances drive to what will be their fateful residence for the next few months is none other than the Going-to-the-Sun Road, Glacier National Park’s iconic — and often very crowded — highway. The actual setting of “The Shining” is Timberline Lodge, near the summit of Oregon’s Mount Hood, but be...
Oct 18, 2021 · Learn how U.S. national parks have been used as stunning backdrops for iconic movies like "Star Wars" and "Planet of the Apes". Discover the locations and scenes where these films were shot in...
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Nov 19, 2012 · If you’re about to see the new movie Lincoln—you’ll be seeing a lot of Richmond, Virginia. Virtually the entire movie was filmed there. Take "Lincoln: The Movie Trail" and trace the film's locations for truly exciting insight into the Civil War, Richmond, and Steven Spielberg's new blockbuster.
