Long before streaming, television crews were hauling cameras into the American wilds to give their shows a sense of scale that no studio backlot could fake. Some of the most famous series in TV history used real public lands as their backdrops, from desert national parks to the rock formations just outside Hollywood. Here are more than 10 classic TV shows that filmed in or around the parks, with a clear note on exactly which public land each one used.
One thing to keep straight as you read. Not every filming location below is a national park. Hollywood leaned heavily on a handful of state and county parks near Los Angeles because they were close and looked otherworldly. We call out the real designation for each one, because the difference matters. If you want the full breakdown of park types, see our explainer on how many national parks there are.
1. The Twilight Zone | Death Valley and the California Desert
Rod Serling’s anthology series leaned on the stark California desert to sell its eerie, end-of-the-world moods. Episodes used desert locations around Death Valley and the broader Mojave, where the salt flats, dunes, and empty horizons made a perfect stand-in for alien worlds and post-apocalyptic Earth. Death Valley is the hottest, driest, and lowest national park in the country, which is exactly why it reads as another planet on screen.
Plan a real visit with our guides to the best things to do in Death Valley and our Death Valley facts.
117 public lands destinations are under threat. Get the free briefing that 27,000+ people use to stay informed and take action.
See Our Death Valley Film
2. Star Trek | Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park
If one location is forever tied to classic television, it is Vasquez Rocks. The tilted sandstone slabs north of Los Angeles appeared again and again in the original Star Trek, most memorably in the episode Arena, where Captain Kirk fights the reptilian Gorn among the rocks. The site is a Los Angeles County park, not a national park, but it is public land you can visit and walk the same ground the crew did.
Vasquez Rocks became such a reliable sci-fi backdrop that later Star Trek series and dozens of other productions returned to it for decades.
3. Lost in Space | Red Rock Canyon State Park
The original 1960s Lost in Space sent the Robinson family to a string of strange planets, many of them played by Red Rock Canyon State Park in California’s Mojave Desert. The eroded cliffs and colorful rock layers made an ideal alien frontier. Note the designation again. This is a California state park, not a national park, though it protects a genuinely cinematic desert landscape.
4. Batman | Bronson Canyon
The 1966 Batman series with Adam West and Burt Ward used Bronson Canyon, and specifically the tunnel known as the Bronson Caves, as the entrance to the Batcave. The Batmobile roared in and out of that cave on screen, and you can hike right up to it today. Bronson Canyon sits within Griffith Park in Los Angeles, a city park, and the caves are a leftover from an old quarry that Hollywood has used for nearly a century.
5. Westerns Across Zion Country
The red rock country in and around southern Utah, including the area near Zion National Park, has drawn Western film and television crews for generations. The towering sandstone cliffs and wide desert vistas are the visual language of the genre. Whole towns in the region built their economies around hosting productions chasing that classic frontier look.
See the real thing with our guides to the best things to do in Zion, plus the best times to go in spring and summer.
See Our Zion Film
6. Nature and Adventure Series in Yellowstone
Yellowstone, the first national park in the world, has appeared on television for as long as the medium has existed, from nature documentaries to adventure series drawn by its geysers, wildlife, and vast wild country. The cartoon Yogi Bear and his fictional Jellystone Park were even loosely inspired by Yellowstone, cementing the park in popular culture.
Plan your own trip with our guides to things to do in Yellowstone and our Yellowstone facts.
7 Through 10+ | More Parks on the Small Screen
Beyond the headliners, plenty of other public lands have logged camera time over the decades:
- The Everglades in Florida have hosted countless nature programs and adventure shows drawn to the alligators, airboats, and the unique river of grass.
- The Mojave and Joshua Tree country have stood in for alien worlds and lonely highways in everything from sci-fi to crime dramas.
- Vasquez Rocks earns a second mention because so many shows beyond Star Trek used it, from Westerns to later sci-fi series.
- Red Rock Canyon State Park likewise appears across decades of television, a go-to desert backdrop for productions on a budget.
- Bronson Canyon shows up in serial after serial, its cave mouth recognizable to generations of viewers.
For the Florida side of the story, see our guides to Everglades National Park, the wider Florida national parks, and the nearby Ocala National Forest.
See Our Ocala National Forest Film
Why So Many Shows Filmed on Public Land
The pattern is no accident. The desert parks near Los Angeles gave producers landscapes that looked like nowhere on Earth, all within a short drive of the studios. The national parks farther afield offered scale and grandeur no set could match. Together they gave television a sense of place that has held up across generations of viewers.
Want the film version of this story? See our companion piece on national parks in the movies, then start planning a trip to see these landscapes for yourself.
