Everything from classic Westerns to ‘Thelma & Louise’ was filmed in Moab.
Rafting down the Colorado River in the gamy desert ofMoab , Utah , the scenery reads like the Hollywood Walk of Fame . In the distance , our usher points out the table top where Bon Jovi filmed the medicine video for “ Blaze of Glory . ” Around the bend , we spy oddment of a John Wayne moving picture set where the Colorado River substitute in forRio Grande ’s titular river . Further still , a makeshift town provides the lot dressing for Kevin Costner ’s wildly ambitious Western opus , Horizon : An American Saga . I came to Moab to hike and raft , but I leave out of the blue star - chance on .
I had been to Moab a few times in the past , but mostly to visit its more well - trod attractive force , like Arches andCanyonlands National Park . I knewThelma & Louisefamously shoot the climactic cliff honkytonk in Moab , with Fossil Point masquerading as theGrand Canyon , but beyond that , my cinematic noesis of the area was limited to James Franco cutting off his own arm in a expansion slot canyon in127 Hours(no thanks ) . On my most late trip , though , visit a new side of Moab revealed a whole new aspect of a area I mean I knew , casting a spotlight on the eminent - desert town that helped originate theWesternfilm literary genre .
Long before Kevin Costner , Bon Jovi , or Geena Davis come to town , Moab was an former primogenitor of the Western film industriousness , thanks to the pioneering try of theMoab to Monument Valley Film Commission . It ’s the long running flick commission in the world , dating back to 1949 , when John Ford filmedWagon Master — an early westerly draw the harrowing journey of outcast Mormons en route to the San Juan Valley — and introduced American audience to the sort of desert background , ruby rocks , and gnarly canon that would derive to define the genre . The success of Ford ’s production ( and its blessing to the local saving ) inspired George White , a local rancher who attend as one of the movie ’s location guide , to found the celluloid committee to commercialize the region as a movie - making hub .
In ‘Thelma & Louise,’ Moab masquerades as the Grand Canyon.|Archive Photos/Stringer/Moviepix/Getty Images
Prior toWagon Master , Ford had filmed several movies ( such asStagecoach ) in Monument Valley , along the Arizona - Utah border . By 1949 , though , he was searching for fresh terrain . He was introduced to White , who gave the director a exhaustive tour of Moab , inspiring him to film bothWagon MasterandRio Grandethere . While Ford ’s Monument Valley movies preceded his Moab work , some of the earliest westerly films ever made were adjustment of author Zane Grey ’s Moab - fix story , The Vanishing American(1925),The Water Hole(1928 ) , andThe Lone Star Ranger(1930 ) . When film studios sought to adapt his novel , Grey insisted that they be film in the same place that inspired his original oeuvre .
Alongside Ford , another John made his fool on Moab . An icon of the Western genre , John Wayne began making films in Moab after starring inStagecoach , follow Ford further into the wild of the high desert . Rio Grande , which filmed at White ’s Ranch , became one of Wayne ’s most iconic roles , catapulting Western photographic film into the national vocabulary .
Over the result decades , following in the wagon track laid by Ford and Wayne , more than 200 pic , show , commercial , and medicine TV have been filmed in and around Moab . In summation to critical and commercial-grade hits likeThelma & Louiseand127 60 minutes , these black market the gamut fromBreakdown(a 1997 action film about Kurt Russell trying to deliver his kidnapped married woman ) andGeronimo : An American Legend(a 1993 biopic starring Gene Hackman , Robert Duvall , and Matt Damon ) toIndiana Jones and the Last Crusade , Will Smith’sAfter Earth , Mission Impossible II , Con - Air , andAustin Powers in Goldmember . Even Marlboro was all in on Moab , filming its original commercial message at an off - road overlook now known , aptly , as Marlboro Point . Bon Jovi was so taken with the region that he set fire to the top of a butte , to the mortification ofpreservationists .
Much of Moab ’s moving picture history can be traced along scenic Route 128 through Professor Valley ( also known as Castle Valley ) , where80 % of Moab productionswere made . hug the mighty Colorado River , flanked by predominate canyon and majestic mesa , it ’s gentle to see what draw westerly headliner here in the first place — and what keeps them coming . While all genres have shoot here , Moab ’s grandiose desert vistas helped position the microscope stage as an enduring epicenter of Western film . Near where Onion Creek trickles into the Colorado , you could still see remnants of theRio Grandeset . Further down river , past the touch townsfolk that Costner construct , Red Cliffs Lodgeis place where White ’s Ranch once stand , beckoning guests with riverbank cabin , pecan - crust trout , and its very own Moab Museum of Film and Western Heritage . The free museum , on the very grounds where John Wayne once stride as Lieutenant Colonel Kirby Yorke , offers a deeply detailed nose dive into the root of the Moab to Monument Valley Film Commission , the cattle farm ’s evolution from cows - nurture to filmmaking , and its role in other films like Rock Hudson’sTaza , Son of Cochise , Henry Fonda - starringWarlock , and another Wayne flick , The Commancheros .
Today , history lives on as Moab persist at the forefront of film . More recently , HBO filmed much ofWestworldin Moab , Michael Bay made part ofTransformers : Age of Extinctionhere , Ang Lee had theHulksprint through Arches National Park , and Gore Verbinski had the badly - rede idea to cast Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer in a remaking ofThe Lone Ranger . The adult Moab import yet is Costner ’s ambitious multi - film project , Horizons : An American Saga . Fresh off the success ofYellowstone , and having cemented his Western cred in movies likeDances with Wolves , Costner has become the veritable John Wayne of his time . For his four - partHorizonsgamble , the doer - managing director broughtone of the largest productionsthe town has ever seen . The first two motion picture are done , and despite not - so - great box office reappearance for the first chapter , Costner is full - steam ahead on the second half of his Moab saga .
For those looking to explore some of Moab ’s picture magic , a bit of preliminary planning goes a long way . First , Moab is quite distant , with no public transportation to speak of , sparse rideshare choice , and once you ’re out in nature , very little — if any — servicing . Thus , renting a gondola is pivotal , and it ’s most easy done at gateway aerodrome like Grand Junction , Colorado ( 113 mile away ) or Salt Lake City ( 234 miles away ) . colligate to the deficiency of overhaul , make certain that you ’re plotting any track or routes before you hit the road , since it ’s moderately hard to do without any signaling . During the peak tourism season , spring through mid - surrender , Arches is so pop that the home park requires modern reservations for timed entranceway . From April 1 - October 31 , visitors must buy an entry ticketonline , for any time slot between 7 am and 4 postmortem . But be careful if you ’re visiting during affectionate months , as temperatures can get really gamy , making mornings and evenings an ideal time to research . During off - peak time of year , visitors can come and go at leisure time — just know that winter can get brutally cold , and especially at high elevations ( like Canyonlands ) , snow-white road can inhibit — or to the full foreclose — sailing .
John Ford filmed the early Western ‘Wagon Master’ in Moab.|Sunset Boulevard/Corbis Historical/Getty Images
In a res publica renowned for itsfilm festival , Moab has carved out its own ecological niche as a gamy - desert Hollywood all its own . While filmingThelma & Louise , director Ridley Scott said , “ I have look more grand and varied scenery in a single day in Moab than any other day I have scouted . ” It ’s a will to a lieu of spectacular singularity , where the wiz in the night sky are matched by stars on the screen , and where — since the dawn of John Wayne and Marlboro cigarettes — the neighborhood ’s table , arches , buttes , and canyons have specify the all - American Western flick genre forever and a day .
John Wayne starred in Rio Grande, in which Moab’s Colorado River stands in for the actual Rio Grande.|United Archives/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Looking at Moab’s scenery, it’s easy to see what drew Western stars here in the first place.|Photo by Marc Piscotty, courtesy of the Utah Office of Tourism
Once you’re out in nature, there’s very little—if any—service in Moab.|Photo by Austen Diamond Photography, courtesy of the Utah Office of Tourism
