The Stunning Vasquez Rocks Served As A Key Filming Location For Multiple Sci-Fi Classics

The Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park is located in the northern part of Los Angeles County, about a 45-minute drive from Hollywood proper (depending on traffic). They are a popular tourist destination because the layered rock formations jut out of the ground at strange, wild angles, giving them an alien look. They were named after Tiburcio Vásquez, a notoriously clever Mexican bandit who hid out among the rocks while eluding the cops back in the 1870s. Hikers have been hiding out among the rocks ever since, admiring their otherworldly beauty. 

Vasquez Rocks has been a popular shooting destination for dozens of major films and TV shows, largely because they're such a short drive from all the production offices in Los Angeles. It's easy to bundle the cast of "Star Trek" into a van, dress three stuntman as a Gorn character (specifically Bobby Clark, Gary Combs, and Bill Blackburn), and go to the Rocks to film actors pretend-fight each other. Indeed, Vasquez Rocks played the role of the Metron planet in the "Star Trek" episode "Arena" (January 19, 1967). One of the rocks at the park has been nicknamed "Kirk's Rock" by Trekkies, as Kirk (William Shatner) ran up to it in the episode. 

And that wasn't even the first time that an episode of "Star Trek" was filmed there. It had previously been seen in the episode "Shore Leave" (December 29, 1966), where it was also the site of a Shatner fight, but with an imaginary version of an old school chum named Finnegan (Bruce Mars). The Park was also seen in "The Alternative Factor," serving as the planet where Lazarus (Robert Brown) got to fight his evil doppelgänger, and it played the planet Capella IV in the episode "Friday's Child" (December 1, 1967), the episode wherein Bones (DeForest Kelley) punched a pregnant woman.

The examples above are just the times that the original "Star Trek" series filmed at Vasquez Rocks. It served as the planet Vulcan in "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home," and turned up in the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" episode "Who Watched the Watchers?" (October 16, 1989). The Park was the shooting location for two episodes of "Star Trek: Voyager" (specifically "Initiations" and "Gravity"), and was the Xyrillian homeworld on the "Star Trek: Enterprise" episode "Unexpected" (October 17, 2001). It was Vulcan again in the 2009 "Star Trek" reboot film, and its sequel, "Star Trek Into Darkness." Finally, the character of Raffi (Michelle Hurd) was seen living in a trailer at Vasquez Rocks in two episodes of "Star Trek: Picard." That last instance is the only time in "Star Trek" history that Vasquez Rocks played itself. 

Of course, the association with "Star Trek" has led to other films and TV shows to film at Vasquez Rocks as a clever reference to the show. The Park was used in Peter Hewitt's 1991 film "Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey" after the film specifically showed footage of the "Arena" episode. Bill (Alex Winter) and Ted (Keanu Reeves) were thrown to their deaths (by evil robot clones) off of a tall rock at the park. In Robert Meyer Burnett's 1999 film "Free Enterprise," a film about adult Trekkies, the characters went to Vasquez Rocks to stage their own mini sci-fi movie. 

In Kevin Smith's 2001 film "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back," the characters eat at a diner at Vasquez Rocks amusingly named the Arena Diner. It was also used in episodes of "The Big Bang Theory" and "Monk" as a sci-fi adjacent location. By the 1990s, everyone was aware of Vasquez's relationship to sci-fi. 

And of course, the Rocks were an alien homeworld in the "Star Trek" neighbor "Galaxy Quest." 

Of course, Vasquez Rocks has served as a convenient filming location for a century, adding instant production value to any cheap movie or major studio project. Tod Browning filmed several stagecoach scenes from his 1931 classic "Dracula" at Vasquez Rocks, covering the sky with an impressive matte painting. The Tibetan mountains of "Werewolf of London" (1934) were also played by Vasquez Rocks. Heck, they were even used in Cecil B. DeMille's 1956 mega-production "The Ten Commandments." 

The Rocks' cinematic soul, however, rests with science fiction, both large and small. Vasquez Rocks was featured in the Disney bomb "John Carter," but also cheapo thrillers like "Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn," "Parasite" (the one with Demi Moore), and 1982's "Forbidden World." It was a wasteland in "Hell Comes to Frogtown" (the awesomely weird sex/frog film with "Rowdy" Roddy Piper), and an alien contact point in "My Stepmother is an Alien." The list goes on. The Rocks were seen in obscurities like 1986's "Wavelength" (which you haven't seen), 1958's "Missile to the Moon," and, naturally, "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie." 

And that's not even counting the dozens and dozens of hit primetime sci-fi TV shows that filmed there. Everything from "Alien Nation" and "Buck Rogers" to "Voyagers!" and "Westworld" also shot there. It was seen in episodes of both "The Twilight Zone" and "The Outer Limits." Chances are, if you've seen an eerie alien rock outcropping, you've seen the northern part of L.A. County. Buffy, Lassie, the Hulk, Zorro, Shazam!, the A-Team, and Hunter all visited. 

Most recently, the Rocks were seen in the 2024 film "Borderlands," presented without irony. The weird rock outcroppings are still, to this day, a handy-dandy alien world set.