Glad You Asked: What Movies Feature Utah Geology? Part 2
by Mackenzie Cope
Four popular filming locations in Utah: (1) Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, (2) Antelope Island and Great Salt Lake, (3) Bryce Canyon National Park, and (4) Mount Timpanogos.
Utah is well-established as a premier location to film television programs and movies and, in 2024, celebrated a landmark 100 years of moviemaking. The success of Utah’s rich film history is intricately tied to the state’s geologically diverse landscapes. Utah’s unique settings make for natural and wholly believable backdrops that support any number of stories.
This second article (see the first in Survey Notes, v. 54, no. 1) continues the tour of filming locations in Utah and the fantastic geology behind these scenes. Whether these movies and television shows are already in your favorites list or new to you, I invite you to take some of the geologic information into your next viewing.
Coral Pink Sand Dunes
The Kanab area has some of the richest film history in Utah due to the variety of geologic settings that include sheer red rock cliffs, brown- and purple-striped slopes, and vast sand dunes. The popular westerns MacKenna’s Gold (1969) and The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) starring Gregory Peck and Clint Eastwood, respectively, showcase the full range of the region’s iconic landscapes.
An often-overlooked filming location near Kanab is Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, which has represented the Arabian Desert, desolate Wild West wastelands, and alien landscapes. The sand dunes are estimated to be 10,000 to 15,000 years old and are composed of sand eroded from nearby cliffs of the Jurassic-age Navajo Sandstone. A phenomenon called the Venturi effect causes wind traveling southeast to speed up as it is funneled through a narrow wind gap south of Block Mesas. Past this constriction, the wind slows down again, and the sand drops and settles into growing piles. The sand continues to migrate from wind gusts and forms the many dunes present at Coral Pink Sand Dunes.
A still from the television show Westworld, filmed at the Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park. Source: “Westworld” Season 2 (2018) / HBO.
In 1942, Universal Pictures, with the prompting of Utah state officials, identified the Coral Pink Sand Dunes as the ideal place to film Arabian Nights (1943), although the studio thought it was too remote. With the support of Utah’s governor, the city of Kanab made a formal appeal to the Utah Legislature to fund an access road from the highway to the filming location. The area was designated as a state park 20 years later and that road is still used by visitors today.
Some films that feature Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park:
- Arabian Nights (1943, not rated)
- A Time For Killing (1967, not rated)
- One Little Indian (1973, G)
- Westworld, Season 2 (2018, TV-MA)
Great Salt Lake and Antelope Island
Great Salt Lake has striking contrasts of blue and pink saline waters, white beaches, and mountainous islands. The current lake formed around 13,000 years ago, as a remanent of Pleistocene-age Lake Bonneville. Because Great Salt Lake has no outlet, salt minerals accumulate as the water evaporates, making the lake salty. The unusually salty lake drew crowds to The Great Saltair, a beach resort built in 1893 on the lake’s southern shore. The Great Saltair burned down in 1925, but its replacement, Saltair II, was the filming location of the cult horror film Carnival of Souls (1962), which has regained popularity in recent times.
A still from the silent movie The Covered Wagon, showing the native bison herd during the hunting scene. The sloping mountains of Antelope Island can be seen in the background. Source: “The Covered Wagon” (1923) / Paramount Pictures.
Great Salt Lake also has 17 named islands, although the number of islands fluctuates with the lake level. Antelope Island, the largest, has rocks that date to the late-Precambrian era (greater than ~540 million years old). These rocks were uplifted into mountains during the Sevier orogeny, a tectonic event that occurred roughly between 170 and 40 million years ago. Beginning around 13 million years ago, the area was subjected to Basin and Range extension along normal faults, which created the Wasatch Range, Salt Lake Valley, and the basin that holds Great Salt Lake. Antelope Island, with its eroded sloping peaks, wide-open fields, and bison herd, was an ideal representation of the Oregon Trail according to James Cruze, the director of one of the first film productions in Utah, The Covered Wagon (1923). The filming location on the island, called “Camera Flats,” is popular with visitors to Antelope Island State Park.
Some films that feature Great Salt Lake and Antelope Island:
- Carnival of Souls (1962, PG)
- Plan 10 from Outer Space (1995, unrated)
- Buffalo Dreams (2005, G)
Bryce Canyon and Cedar Breaks
The Cedar City area, Cedar Breaks National Monument, and Bryce Canyon National Park have served as backdrops for cinema since 1924 when Fox Film Corporation filmed The Deadwood Coach (1924) at locations throughout southern Utah. This movie, which is a lost silent film (only a few photographs have survived), highlighted southern Utah geology and helped bring in other iconic films. In 1927, two filming companies, working on Ramona (1928) and The Shepherd of the Hills (1928), even had a standoff at Cedar Breaks’ Inspiration Point, each asserting their claim of being there first to film. Around the same time, some of the first films shot at Bryce Canyon include Forlorn River (1926) and Nevada (1927), adaptations of books by the legendary author Zane Grey. The director, John Waters, filmed at least three Zane Grey movie adaptations at Bryce Canyon by the time the area was designated as a national park in 1928.
A still from the lost silent film, The Deadwood Coach, filmed at Bryce Canyon National Park and the same location from 2026 near the Sunset Point overlook. Source: “The Deadwood Coach” (1924) / Fox Film Corporation.
The unique landscape of Cedar Breaks and Bryce Canyon is due to the Eocene-age Claron Formation, which is composed of pink-white-colored limestone that was deposited in shallow lakes, ponds, and marshes. It is not just the colors of the rock that amazes visitors and movie-lovers, but also the erosional “hoodoo” landforms. Hoodoos are created when vertical fractures in the rock collect water and experience freeze-thaw cycles. As the ice expands, blocks of rock are fractured and eroded, creating elaborate hoodoos. The feeling of seeing them for the first time is well-captured in Utah films. Directors have often introduced these landscapes to the audience during a major reveal in the plot or an arrival to a new awe-inspiring location.
Some films that feature Cedar Breaks and Bryce Canyon:
- Can’t Help Singing (1944, approved rating)
- Thunderhead: Son of Flicka (1945, no rating)
- Snowfire (1957, no rating)
- Bonneville (2006, PG)
Mount Timpanogos
The long history of films in Utah has created many personal connections with Utah’s iconic landscapes. The late Robert Redford, a legendary actor and life-long advocate for protecting public lands, was drawn to the Wasatch Range when he starred in and helped shape Jeremiah Johnson (1972). The movie was filmed primarily in Provo Canyon, Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest, and at Mount Timpanogos, named after the local Timpanogos tribe, whose few descendants reside on the Uintah and Ouray Reservation. The mountain is a layer-cake assemblage of Paleozoic-age formations of limestone and sandstone, capped by the Bear Canyon Formation of the Oquirrh Group. The formation was deposited in a shallow marine environment during the Pennsylvanian Period (~300 million years ago) and uplifted during the Laramide orogeny (70–34 million years ago). The massive gray cliffs, often snow-covered as seen in Jeremiah Johnson, highlight the remote wilderness associated with the mountain men and Native American peoples.
A still from Airport 1975 with the Boeing 747 in the air with the Wasatch Range in the background. Source: “Airport 1975” (1974) / Universal Pictures.
I found my own personal connection to Utah’s movie history and landscapes from the disaster thriller movie Airport 1975 (1974), in which my grandfather, on a chance encounter, was offered a small role. In the film, there are many aerial views of Mount Timpanogos because much of the film takes place on an airborne Boeing 747. The mountains are not only used as an imposing backdrop, but also as an active plot point where the 5,270-foot-tall (and 11,752 feet above sea level) Mount Timpanogos is a barrier the flight crew must avoid colliding with throughout the movie.
Some films that feature Mount Timpanogos:
- Jeremiah Johnson (1972, PG)
- Airport 1975 (1974, PG)
- Walking Thunder (1995, rating)
My grandfather’s experience being in a movie is not unique. There is a vast collection of generational stories of Utahns who were recruited by, and participated in, Utah’s movie industry as extras, set builders, and hosts for cast and crew. The unique enthusiasm and giving spirit of Utahns, along with Utah’s diverse natural landscapes and geology, have helped the filming legacy in Utah thrive.
Thank you to the Utah Film Commission for their ongoing collaboration with the Utah Geological Survey, assistance with fact-checking and revisions for this article, and providing imagery. The primary sources of film history presented in this article are When Hollywood Came to Utah, Centennial Edition by James V. D’Arc and Cinema Southwest by John A. Murray.
For more information about the locations highlighted in this article and Utah’s film history, check out these resources:
