Where Was Jurassic Park Filmed? The Real Isla Nublar

Jurassic Park was filmed mostly on Kauai, the oldest of the main Hawaiian islands. The waterfall, the electric fence, the raptor pen and the famous gate were all on Kauai. One big scene, the Gallimimus stampede, was shot at Kualoa Ranch on Oahu.

Most of the rest was filmed in California, at a desert state park and on soundstages in Los Angeles. One aerial shot was filmed off Maui. Isla Nublar, the island off Costa Rica in the story, doesn’t exist, and nothing was filmed in Costa Rica.

This guide counts down the 10 Jurassic Park filming locations, from Grant’s dig in the California desert to the waterfall where the helicopter lands. Then it covers the hurricane that hit the shoot, and where every sequel was filmed.

#	Real place	Scene	Where	Can you visit?
10	Red Rock Canyon State Park	Grant’s dig in “Montana”	California	Yes
9	Warner Bros. Stage 16	The T. rex breakout	Burbank, California	No
8	Ho’opi’i Falls	The amber mine	Kauai	Yes, on a short hike
7	Valley House estate	The visitor center	Kauai	No. It’s private
6	Near the Blue Hole, Mount Waialeale	The gate	Kauai	The site, by 4WD or a long hike
5	Limahuli Garden	The raptor pen	Kauai	Yes
4	Allerton Garden	The hatched eggs	Kauai	Yes, on a guided tour
3	Olokele Canyon	The electric fence	Kauai	By helicopter
2	Kualoa Ranch	The Gallimimus stampede	Oahu	Yes, on a ranch tour
1	Manawaiopuna Falls	The helicopter arrival	Kauai	By helicopter

The 10 Jurassic Park Filming Locations

The countdown starts in the California desert and ends at a waterfall you can only reach by air.

10) Red Rock Canyon State Park, California: Grant’s Dig

The “Montana” badlands where Grant and Ellie dig up a raptor are in the Mojave Desert.

Early in the film, we meet Grant and Ellie at a dinosaur dig in Montana. The production planned to shoot in Montana, then dropped it to save time and money. The crew used Red Rock Canyon State Park in California instead, with its striped cliffs and dry washes.

It’s a real state park, open from sunrise to sunset, with a campground. You can walk among the same red cliffs and badlands, about two hours’ drive north of Los Angeles.

9) Warner Bros. Stage 16, Burbank: The T. rex Breakout

The film’s most famous scene was shot indoors, on one of the tallest soundstages in the world.

The T. rex breakout happens at night in a storm, so it was built on a stage where the crew could control the rain. Universal, the film’s studio, had no stage big enough, so the crew moved to Stage 16 at Warner Bros. in Burbank. Filming there began in late October 1992.

The T. rex was a 9,000 lb animatronic built by Stan Winston’s team. Its foam skin soaked up the fake rain, and the extra weight made it shake. The crew had to dry it between takes. The AFI Catalog puts the T. rex paddock on Universal’s Stage 12. Wikipedia and most location guides give Warner Bros. Stage 16.

8) Ho’opi’i Falls, Kauai: The Amber Mine

The amber mine in the “Dominican Republic” was a waterfall near Kapaa.

Early in the film, the lawyer Donald Gennaro visits an amber mine in the Dominican Republic. The park’s investors are nervous, and he wants answers. That scene was filmed near Ho’opi’i Falls on Kauai. Nearby Kapaa town also played “San Jose, Costa Rica”, where Nedry meets Dodgson.

The mine set is long gone, but the falls are an easy hike. The trail starts in a residential area, so park carefully and keep the noise down.

7) Valley House, Kauai: The Visitor Center

The visitor center was a giant facade built on a private estate.

The guests arrive at the park’s visitor center, with its thatched roofs and tall wooden doors. The outside was a facade about 60 feet high and nearly 200 feet long, built on the grounds of the Valley House estate on Kauai. The inside, with the rotunda and the “When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth” banner, was a set on a Universal stage.

The facade was taken down, and Valley House is private. There’s nothing to see from the road.

6) Near the Blue Hole, Mount Waialeale: The Gate

The giant wooden gate was built deep in Kauai’s forest, and nothing of it is left.

The gate is one of the sights fans ask about most, and it isn’t at Kualoa Ranch. It was built on Kauai, near the Blue Hole at the foot of Mount Waialeale, one of the wettest places on Earth. The T. rex paddock clearing used in daylight scenes is said to be about a mile further on.

Nothing of the gate survives. The road in crosses streams and can close after rain, and rental car contracts often ban driving it. Many fans hike it from Keahua Arboretum. It’s about 8 miles there and back to the gate, or about 10 miles if you go on to the T. rex paddock.

5) Limahuli Garden, Kauai: The Raptor Pen

The raptor pen was built in a valley on Kauai’s north shore, and a hurricane tore it apart.

The raptor pen, with its high fences and the crane that lowers a cow inside, was built at Limahuli Garden. Hurricane Iniki destroyed it in September 1992. The garden’s director said the debris was scattered across the valley.

Limahuli is now a botanical garden run by the National Tropical Botanical Garden. You can walk it on your own, with views up to the Makana ridge. Book ahead, because parking is limited.

4) Allerton Garden, Kauai: The Hatched Eggs

Grant finds the eggs that prove the dinosaurs are breeding among the roots of giant fig trees.

Grant, Lex and Tim stop among the huge roots of a fig tree, and Grant finds a broken eggshell. The dinosaurs, all supposed to be female, are breeding. That scene was filmed among the Moreton Bay fig trees at Allerton Garden. The outside of the maintenance shed was filmed here too.

The figs are the stars of Allerton’s garden tours, and the guides point out the Jurassic Park roots. Tours run a few days a week and go into the garden by bus, so book ahead.

3) Olokele Canyon, Kauai: The Electric Fence

The electric fence that Grant and the kids climb was built in a canyon on Kauai. It’s where filming began, on 24 August 1992.

Filming began on 24 August 1992 in Olokele Canyon, where the crew built the 24-foot electric fences. It’s the scene where Grant, Lex and Tim climb over the fence just as the power comes back on, and Tim is thrown off.

The canyon is on private land, so you need a helicopter. Most Kauai tours fly over it on the way to the waterfall at number 1. Safari Helicopters has a tour that lands on a ridge above the canyon.

2) Kualoa Ranch, Oahu: The Gallimimus Stampede

The flock of Gallimimus running across a green valley was filmed on Oahu, after a hurricane forced the crew off Kauai.

The Gallimimus scene was meant for Kauai. When Hurricane Iniki hit, the production moved it to Kualoa Ranch on Oahu, about two weeks later. Grant, Lex and Tim run across the open Ka’a’awa Valley with the flock, then hide behind a fallen log as the T. rex catches one.

Kualoa is the easiest Jurassic Park location to tour, and two of the sequels filmed there too. Its Jurassic Adventure Tour takes you into the valley and to the log, though the one there now is a replacement. The ranch is about 24 miles from Waikiki.

1) Manawaiopuna Falls, Kauai: The Helicopter Arrival

The waterfall where Hammond’s helicopter lands is real, and you can only get there by air.

When Hammond flies Grant, Ellie, Malcolm and Gennaro to Isla Nublar, the helicopter drops into a deep valley and lands next to a waterfall. That’s Manawaiopuna Falls, about 400 feet high, in Hanapepe Valley on Kauai. The “Jurassic Falls” nickname came after the film.

The falls are on private land with no trail in. Most Kauai helicopter tours fly past. Island Helicopters is the only company allowed to land, on a tour of about 75 to 80 minutes, and you walk a short path to the base. It’s the closest you can get to arriving on Isla Nublar.

Hurricane Iniki and Jurassic Park

A real hurricane hit Kauai on the last scheduled day of filming there, and it’s in the movie.

Hurricane Iniki hit Kauai on 11 September 1992 as a Category 4 storm, with winds of about 140 mph at landfall. It was the last scheduled day of the Kauai shoot. The cast and crew rode it out in the ballroom of their hotel in Nawiliwili for hours.

• The storm on screen: Spielberg and a small crew filmed the real waves at Nawiliwili Bay. That footage is the storm that hits Isla Nublar in the film.
• What was lost: The raptor pen set at Limahuli was destroyed. A planned scene of Ray Arnold’s death was also lost, so he dies offscreen.
• The move to Oahu: The Gallimimus stampede was moved to Kualoa Ranch about two weeks later.
• The way out: Producer Kathleen Kennedy found a pilot to fly the cast and crew off the island, on one of the first planes to land after the storm.

The production still finished under budget and 12 days early.

Where Were the Jurassic Park Sequels Filmed?

The sequels kept coming back to Hawaii, then moved to England, Malta, Canada and Thailand.

• The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997): The redwoods of Fern Canyon and Humboldt County in California, a beach on Kauai, and Los Angeles for the T. rex in San Diego.
• Jurassic Park III (2001): Oahu and Kauai, with aerials of Molokai’s cliffs, and Los Angeles stages.
• Jurassic World (2015): Oahu, including Kualoa Ranch, and Kauai, plus New Orleans for the park’s Main Street.
• Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018): Pinewood Studios and other sites in England, Oahu and Scotland.
• Jurassic World Dominion (2022): British Columbia, Pinewood and Malta.
• Jurassic World Rebirth (2025): Thailand, Malta and Sky Studios Elstree in England.

How Jurassic Park Was Filmed

Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of Michael Crichton’s novel changed how films used computer effects.

• The shoot: Filming ran from 24 August to 30 November 1992, about 14 weeks, and finished 12 days early.
• The writers: Crichton and David Koepp wrote the screenplay. Crichton was paid $1.5 million for the rights and $500,000 to adapt it.
• The dinosaurs: The film has about 15 minutes of dinosaurs. About 9 minutes are Stan Winston’s animatronics and about 6 are ILM’s computer graphics.
• The Oscars: It won all three of its nominations: Sound, Sound Effects Editing and Visual Effects.
• The box office: It became the highest-grossing film ever, passing E.T., and held the record until Titanic. With re-releases, Box Office Mojo now puts it at about $1.1 billion worldwide.

How to Visit the Jurassic Park Locations

Kauai has most of the locations, and Oahu has the easiest one to walk around. Give Kauai two or three days.

Kauai.

1. Book a helicopter tour to see Manawaiopuna Falls and Olokele Canyon. Island Helicopters is the only one that lands at the falls.
2. Take the guided tour of Allerton Garden to see the fig tree roots, then visit Limahuli Garden on the north shore.
3. Hike to Ho’opi’i Falls near Kapaa.
4. If you have the right vehicle and the weather is dry, take the road from Keahua Arboretum toward the gate site.

Oahu. Book the Jurassic Adventure Tour at Kualoa Ranch, about an hour’s drive from Waikiki. It goes into Ka’a’awa Valley, past the log and sets from the later films.

California. Red Rock Canyon State Park is on Highway 14, north of Los Angeles.

More Jurassic Park Filming Locations

Place	Scene
Kapaa, Kauai	“San Jose, Costa Rica”, where Nedry meets Dodgson
Nawiliwili Bay, Kauai	The real Hurricane Iniki waves in the storm
Keopuka Rock, off Maui	The helicopter approach to Isla Nublar
Universal Studios, Los Angeles	The kitchen, the control room, the lab and the visitor center inside

FAQs About Where Jurassic Park Was Filmed

The Final Cut on Where Jurassic Park Was Filmed

So where was Jurassic Park filmed? Mostly on Kauai, from the waterfall and the fence to the gardens and the gate, with the Gallimimus stampede at Kualoa Ranch on Oahu and the T. rex in a Burbank soundstage.

You can’t land on Isla Nublar, but you can land at its waterfall. Book the helicopter, then take the ranch tour on Oahu.

Which Jurassic Park location would you visit first?

For more, see where Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed on Kauai, where Lost was filmed on Oahu, read about Crichton’s Westworld, or browse all our film locations.