10 Real World Star Trek Locations You Can Visit
9. El Capitan
You might not have to go to Sha-Ka-Ree to meet your maker if you're thinking of climbing this rock, and you won't have the hover boots to help you either! Personally, I'd be stood right next to Bones — a nervous wreck on the ground is worth a Kirk and Spock in the air. It all flips to fibreglass anyway once we can see William Shatner's face.
Located in California's stunning Yosemite National Park (worth the trip itself), El Capitan is a famously unique challenge for rock climbers, its western face standing at over 900m from floor to summit. You may have seen it most recently in the documentary Free Solo which tells the story of Alex Honnold, the first person to achieve in 2017 what Kirk was attempting to do — climb El Capitan with just his shoes, the clothes on his back, and a bit of chalk.
Even though he came up with the idea, Shatner admitted behind the scenes on Star Trek V: The Final Frontier that he was afraid of heights! Therefore, to give the illusion that he was actually scaling the cliff face during those close-ups, a 60ft-high fiberglass wall was brought on location and positioned with "El Cap" in the background. Experienced climbers were hired to do the real climbing of El Capitan for the earlier sequences.