10 Other Times Star Trek Used The Vasquez Rocks
2. Outside Of Star Trek
Vasquez Rocks Nature County Park itself, though, is very real —and easy to locate and visit. If you find yourself in greater Los Angeles, it’s an easy 45 minutes (outside of rush hour!) out northeast from Hollywood, up the 14 Freeway via the 5 in Agua Dulce, and sporting a spiffy visitors’ nature center. (They are waiting for you, including some Trekkie items in the little gift shop.)
They also mention the geology of the place, as well as the original indigenous native dwellers. Note that the center and the whole park are closed on Mondays, but you can park along the roadway down from the gate and walk in along the Pacific Crest Trail.
Oh, and that visitors center even gives a nod to the rocks’ full IMDB resume, as well.
Not just westerns of course, but Sci-fi and adventure shoots, too —everything from Roswell, 24 and CSI to AlienNation, Sliders, Buffy, as well as new projects like Fallout and Wonder Man.
For Mighty Morphin Power Rangers fans, it’s a bit confusing: Vasquez Rocks was used as a setting for the Rangers’ Command Center, even though the building itself was actually on the other side of Los Angeles, just into Ventura County: the Brandeis-Bardin Institute’s House of the Book. Or, as we know it, Camp Khitomer! (Unless, of course, Lore’s Borg are hiding out there.)
On the big screen, you’ve seen Vasquez Rocks everywhere from the original Bela Lugosi 1931 Dracula to Blazing Saddles, Army of Darkness, Austin Powers, and Planet of the Apes, for starters. Not to mention the spoofs of that famous Kirk-Gorn faceoff: Bill and Ted’s Excellent Journey, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back ...
And, of course, The Big Bang Theory in Season 4, although those are studio fake rocks standing in for real ones, because once again that’s a studio backdrop and CGI behind the cosplaying quartet of actors, not the actual location on site.
In fact, this TBBT episode wants you to think the boys with their stolen car and no phones are stuck miles from anywhere and have to hitchhike. But when you make your own away mission to Vasquez Rocks and look around, you’ll wonder why our heroes didn’t simply approach any of a half-dozen homes within a half-mile of the place! Ah, Hollywood magic!