Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining may be set in Colorado, but its unsettling atmosphere came together across locations in the U.S. and the U.K. Some spots are still standing – hello, Timberline! – others are long gone, but all of them offer something to horror fans and film history nerds.
I first saw the movie at 12 and instantly fell down the rabbit hole of Overlook lore. Who was the guy in the bear mask? Where was the hedge maze, really? Was it truly a “great party”? Years later, in pursuit of answers to these frankly unanswerable questions, we visited Oregon’s Timberline Lodge to track down its exact filming spots, and dug into the rest of the movie’s scattered shoot.
With the film celebrating its 45th anniversary this year, I’ve prepared a mammoth travel and film history guide for you! Who loves research? Me! Here’s every filming location we could confirm and whether they’re worth the detour.
Heads up: This guide includes places we’ve personally visited (✓) and others we’ve verified through production research (★). Some links in this post may be affiliate links — if you book or buy through them, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Why These Locations Were Chosen for The Shining
Right from the off, Kubrick didn’t want The Shining to look like a set. Instead of designing the Overlook Hotel from scratch, he sent a team of location scouts across America to photograph real lobbies, hallways, apartments, even larders. Every kind of space was fair game.
He was aiming for familiarity but through rather unusual means. Kubrick believed that horror lands harder when it unfolds in places that feel real, even a little mundane.
Rather than inventing spaces in concert with set designers, he built the Overlook from a patchwork of real ones, borrowing design details from hundreds of photographed locations and blending them together on a soundstage. The result was a hotel that felt haunted because it felt, well, real.
Kubrick’s location research team included his daughter Katharina Kubrick, production designer Roy Walker, and assistant Leon Vitali. They returned to London with thousands of photos, which Kubrick used to assemble a mood board of mismatched grandeur. Ballrooms from one place, kitchens from another.
“It’s silly to try to design something that everybody sees in real life and knows looks slightly wrong,” Kubrick told El Pais Artes in 1980. He wanted to copy the ugliness of real apartments and the elegance of grand hotel spaces, rather than rely on stylized sets.
“Stanley liked to copy things,” assistant director Brian Cook told Justin Bozung in an interview for The Shining: Studies in The Horror Film. “He liked the real thing he saw in research. He’d take sections from different locations and combine them.”
Key Locations
Legend ✓ Visited in person ★ Verified via research
The Overlook Hotel (Exteriors) ✓
The Timberline Lodge, 27500 E Timberline Road, Government Camp, OR 97028
You can visit the Overlook… sort of. Kubrick used the Timberline Lodge, perched on the south slope of Mount Hood, as the hotel’s exterior. We visited during a very unspooky time: the front facade was under construction, making it tough to recreate that iconic establishing shot (unless you had a drone and a death wish, although we did have wine so that might have helped with the latter).
Instead, I focused on matching angles from Dick Hallorann’s snowcat arrival, which was trickier than expected. Spoiler: it’s the back of the Timberline, not the front, that shows up during his final approach. We discovered the right angle by scrambling down a hill near the Wy’East Day Lodge and comparing shots against stills from the film. It’s obvious that the front of the lodge is not where they filmed his return to the hotel.
Built in 1937, the Timberline Lodge was one of many hotels photographed by production designer Roy Walker during pre-production. Kubrick eventually sent his brother-in-law Jan Harlan and camera operator Douglas Milsome to capture actual footage, once in winter (just the two of them and a local helper), and again in summer with a full crew.
For the winter shoot, the pair stayed in front-facing rooms at the Timberline and lit them from inside to create the illusion of occupancy. Kubrick even marked which windows should be glowing. They shot early in the morning to get untouched snow, sneaking out the back to avoid leaving tracks, Milsome explains in The Elstree Project’s documentary, Staircases to Nowhere: The Making of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining.
Some of Hallorann’s drive was filmed on West Leg Trail, a snowy road leading up to the lodge, but the final approach was filmed from the rear. In fact, our video comparison shows matching tree lines and chimney outlines from that exact angle.
Milsome recalled in an interview with Justin Bozung using a 90-foot cherry picker to capture the famous shot of the yellow Beetle pulling into the lodge. And of course, there’s the now-legendary room number change: Timberline management asked Kubrick not to use 217 (an actual room) out of fear guests would avoid it. He changed it to 237. Ironically, 217 is now the most requested room at the hotel.
How to Get There
About 60 miles from Portland, OR. Take US-26 E to Timberline Highway; the road winds up the mountain and ends at the lodge.
Traveler’s Tip
You can stay overnight in Room 217—yes, the real one. It’s one of their most requested rooms.
💡 Planning a trek to visit the real Overlook?
Check out our review of the Timberline Lodge — alas, no creepy twins but a fun axe to wield!
The Overlook Hotel (Interiors & Backlot Exterior) ★
EMI-Elstree Studios, Borehamwood, London
The Shining might be set in Colorado, but the bulk of it was filmed in England. Elstree Studios served as the primary filming location for the Overlook’s interiors, including the Colorado Lounge, the Gold Room, and Room 237.
The production built sets that felt so real, some of the crew, including camera operator Ray Andrew, who filmed that staircase scene with the Steadicam, said it didn’t feel like a set at all. The ceilings were made of real plaster. The walls were solid. The Colorado Lounge even had full windows and 800 photoflood bulbs behind them to simulate natural light… until that heat caused a fire that burned the entire set down (after most filming wrapped).
But it wasn’t just the interiors. To allow Kubrick to shoot outdoor scenes without flying to Oregon, the crew built a full-size replica of the Timberline Lodge’s front facade, and a partial hedge maze, on Elstree’s backlot.
The result: scenes like Stuart Ullman’s tour, Wendy and Danny fleeing the hotel, and the Sno-Cat parked in front of the entrance were all filmed in rainy England, not snowy Oregon. We dive into this in our filming locations video linked above!
Kubrick’s crew tore down an old street set in order to build the Timberline replica. To fake isolation, they planted small pine trees around the lot to obscure the nearby housing estate and used forced perspective to make the setting feel expansive. For winter scenes, the crew covered the set in fake snow and icicles.
One of the cleverest setups came from Dick Hallorann’s kitchen, because it wasn’t filmed on a soundstage, but an actual office at Elstree repurposed as a kitchen set. This came to light in Paul King’s 2024 documentary Shine On: The Forgotten Shining Location.
As mentioned above, Kubrick based the interiors on pre-existing locations, and had scouts like Les Tomkins photograph and measure real hotels, most notably the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite. Tomkins stayed overnight in the Ahwahnee, sneaking down in the middle of the night to size up the lodge’s rooms.
On an interesting note of coincidence, Gilbert Stanley Underwood, architect of the Ahwahnee, also created the first designs for Timberline Lodge.
The infamous red bathroom Inspired by a toilet designed with input from Frank Lloyd Wright that lore suggests was once in the Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix. Research I’ve conducted only lead me so far, it seems that no photographs or schematics exist of this said bathroom.
“I think that in the sets it’s very important they just be very real,” Kubrick told Vicente Molina Foix in a 1980 interview. “Every detail in those sets comes from photographs of real places very carefully copied.”
Kubrick’s attention to detail was visual, not symbolic. The Native American art which has spawned decades of speculation concerning alternate meanings, wasn’t really a hidden message at all. It was just something he liked the look of in the reference images.
“It really didn’t have any meaning,” said assistant director Brian Cook. “You see that imagery in the hotel because we had seen that Indian imagery in the research photographs that Roy Walker and his team had taken in America.”
How To Get There
Elstree Studios still operates in Borehamwood but is not open to public tours. You can walk past the entrance, and Borehamwood itself has some film history appeal.
Traveler’s Tip
Use it as an anchor stop on a Kubrick pilgrimage across the UK, especially if you’re also hitting the BFI or the Stanley Kubrick Archive in London.
The Hedge Maze ★
EMI-Elstree Studios, Borehamwood, London
Despite playing a huge role in The Shining’s climax, the hedge maze never actually appears in the early exterior shots of the Overlook. That’s either a glaring continuity error, an intentional misdirect, or (most likely) Kubrick just not caring about visual consistency in the name of atmosphere.
Instead of using the animated topiary animals from Stephen King’s novel, Kubrick and co-writer Diane Johnson chose to create a labyrinth. Johnson told Entertainment Weekly that the hedge maze idea was directly inspired by the book’s living shrub creatures but Kubrick thought they were too goofy for the film’s tone.
The maze was built in pieces. The summer maze scenes were filmed outdoors using pine boughs affixed to plywood frames—either on the Elstree backlot or at nearby Radlett Aerodrome. The winter maze, used in the film’s finale, was constructed entirely on Stage 1 at Elstree.
Filming in the hedge maze was notoriously brutal. During the summer shoot, crew members—including Kubrick himself—would get lost navigating the leafy corridors. But things got worse once the snow was added.
The winter maze was blanketed in dairy salt, Styrofoam, and oil smoke to create the icy nightmare seen on screen. According to Steadicam operator Garrett Brown, the heat from massive quartz lights combined with the fake snow created a thick, choking atmosphere. Crew members reported eye irritation, breathing issues, and shoes dissolving from the salt.
Art director Les Tomkins recalled: “That was a terrible set to work on. The formaldehyde and salt gave off a lot of fumes.”
How to Get There
Neither the Elstree backlot nor Radlett Aerodrome is publicly accessible. Stage 1 still exists but isn’t open to tours.
Traveler’s Tip
While you can’t visit the maze itself, you can trace parts of its legacy in behind-the-scenes docs, props in private collections, and the recreated maze at the Stanley Hotel.
Jack’s drive to The Overlook ★
Going-to-the-Sun Road, Glacier National Park, Montana, USA
Kubrick wanted Jack’s drive to the Overlook to feel isolating, eerie, and vast. And thanks to Glacier National Park’s mountain roads and alpine lakes, it does. These iconic opening shots, backed by that baritone, menacing score, set the stage for everything that follows.
Kubrick’s team originally tried shooting footage in Colorado, but it fell flat. Enter Garrett Brown, inventor of the Steadicam, who suggested Glacier National Park. Kubrick then brought in renowned aerial cinematographer Gregg MacGillivray, who spent nearly a month waiting for just the right conditions to get the shots Kubrick envisioned.
MacGillivray agreed to only charge Kubrick for shoot days, not wait days, and spent several dawns rehearsing the perfect shot: the helicopter skimming the mirror-like surface of Saint Mary Lake, picking up the yellow VW Beetle and tracking it across the road.
“We had rehearsed this shot every day for four mornings at daybreak,” MacGillivray later wrote. “We waited for the perfect sunrise, the tree leaves to hit peak yellow, and glassy lake conditions. The shot lasted two minutes and was flawless from start to finish.”
Kubrick also shot a cut scene showing the Torrance family arriving with a trailer to explain how they brought their luggage, but he cut it, opting to re-use aerial shots instead. MacGillivray’s crew even stood in for the Torrances in that sequence.
One more deleted scene: a shot of Doc Hallorann getting into a car crash while receiving Danny’s visions. It was filmed on Pacific Coast Highway near Poche Beach, California, standing in for Miami. But it was never used and neither was the actor. Kubrick used a stand-in for Scatman Crothers, and then ditched the footage entirely.
How to Get There
Drive the Going-to-the-Sun Road, a 50-mile route that cuts through the heart of Glacier National Park. Saint Mary Lake and Wild Goose Island are particularly recognizable. The road is closed in winter, so check seasonal access before you go.
Traveller’s Tip
Sunrise or early morning is best to avoid crowds. Bring layers as it gets chilly even in summer. Get prices now on organised tours.
The Torrance Family Apartment ★
Kensington Apartments, 2950 Bixby Lane, Boulder, Colorado, 80303
These blink-and-you’ll-miss-it establishing shots introduce Jack, Wendy, and Danny’s life before the Overlook. A second unit captured them on location in Boulder, Colorado. While unconfirmed, it’s likely that Gregg MacGillivray’s aerial crew was behind this shoot, he’d already been tasked with gathering scenic material around the area.
How to Get There
The Kensington Apartments still exist and are located in a quiet Boulder neighborhood near the University of Colorado campus.
Traveller’s Tip
Not much has changed, just don’t linger too long as this is a real residence.
Denver Airport (U.S. Version Only) ★
Stansted Airport, Essex, UK
Hallorann’s brief scene at “Denver Airport” where he calls Durkin for help isn’t actually Denver at all. It was filmed at Stansted Airport, just north of London. Like many of the U.S.-set interiors, this was another case of Kubrick shooting local and dressing the set to pass as American.
This scene was cut from the European release, along with roughly 20 minutes of additional footage.
According to ShiningSets, the phone scene was filmed in an older terminal now owned by Harrods Aviation. The next scene, where Hallorann’s drive takes him past a red VW Beetle crushed by a Mack truck, was shot not in Denver, but at Radlett Aerodrome back in the UK. This entire sequence was eventually cut from international versions of the movie.
How to Get There
Stansted is a major airport still in operation today. The terminal used for filming is now part of Harrods Aviation and not open to the public.
Traveller’s Tip
This one’s mostly for completists, there’s no visible trace of the shoot, but if you’re passing through Stansted on a Kubrick pilgrimage, it makes for a fun trivia footnote.
Wendy and Danny’s Hospital Scene (Deleted) ★
Royal London Free Hospital, Hampstead Road, London, UK
One of the most discussed scenes in The Shining never made it past opening weekend. The original cut shown in U.S. theaters included a coda where Wendy and Danny are recovering in a hospital after escaping the Overlook. It’s brief, strange, and rarely seen but it was filmed, and it was shown.
The sequence was shot on location at the Royal London Free Hospital, where the production rented out an entire floor. Actress Robin Pappas, who plays the nurse and is still credited despite not appearing in most versions of the film, recalls being driven to the hospital at night to shoot her scene.
Kubrick cut the hospital scene just days after the film premiered. Publicist Julian Senior watched an early U.S. screening and told Kubrick it undermined the final impact of Jack frozen in the maze. Kubrick agreed and quickly sent editors to manually remove the scene from every reel playing in theaters.
Editor Jay Friedkin later said Kubrick compared the audience reaction with and without the scene. Without it, people applauded and stayed through the credits. With it, they just quietly left.
The scene remains one of the rarest pieces of Shining lore. For those curious, a partial reconstruction is available online:
How To Get There
The Royal Free Hospital is located in Hampstead, North London, and is still an active NHS hospital. Filming is believed to have taken place on a closed floor, not accessible to the public.
Traveller’s Tip
While the hospital itself isn’t a tourist destination, film nerds might enjoy a walk through nearby Hampstead where The Omen lensed several key scenes.
Map of The Shining Filming Locations
Tip: Tap ‘View Larger Map’ for easy navigation on your phone while hunting down filming locations.
Your Guide to Visiting The Shining’s Filming Sites
The Shining was filmed across two continents, several soundstages, and a national park with seasonal road closures, but if you’re itching to chase the Overlook across the real world, here’s how to plan it.
In The U.S.
- Start at Timberline Lodge, Oregon – the real face of the Overlook. Stay overnight if you can (Room 217, anyone?).
- Head to Glacier National Park, Montana – drive Going-to-the-Sun Road and try to time it with fall colors for that perfect Beetle tracking shot.
- Stop in at the Ahwahnee Hotel, Yosemite, California – the unmistakable inspiration for the Colorado Lounge and those bloody elevator doors.
- Optional Boulder detour to visit the Torrance Apartment and… The Stanley Hotel – for Torrance apartment exteriors, but also to check out the hotel that started it all, The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park. This historic haunted hotel was Stephen King’s original inspiration for the novel and offers bespoke tours on The Shining.
In The U.K.
- Elstree Studios, Borehamwood – not open to the public, but essential to the film’s DNA. The interiors, the hedge maze, even Hallorann’s kitchen were filmed here.
- Stansted Airport – where Hallorann calls Durkin in the U.S. version.
- Royal Free Hospital, Hampstead – if you’re really committed to finding the site of the deleted hospital scene.
Want to get extra nerdy?
Dig into Kubrick-related stops around London: the Stanley Kubrick Archive (access is restricted), or even the BFI Kubrick exhibit when it’s on tour.
The BFI pulled together a handy guide on Kubrick’s locations across the UK you can still check out— seems like his penchant for filming close to his home in England was everlasting.
Travel Tips
Best Time To Visit
If you’re heading to Timberline Lodge, go in late September through October for peak spooky vibes. Fall foliage cloaks the mountain, and the early dusk gives everything that Overlook tinge. This is when we visited the Lodge and found it really quite delightful.
For snow-drenched isolation that mirrors the film’s setting, January to March is prime ski season, but be warned: the lodge books out fast and the mountain roads can be a little… foreboding.
If you’re making a stop at Glacier National Park, aim for late June through mid-September when all roads, including the iconic Going-to-the-Sun Road, are typically open and snow-free. July and August offer the most reliable weather, but also the most visitors.
For fewer crowds and a touch of fall drama, early October can be a great shoulder-season window, though snow can creep in early at elevation. Outside of summer and early fall, access is limited.
Hidden Gems Worth Checking Out
MoPop in Seattle has one of Jack’s original axes from the film, tucked inside their Scared to Death: The Thrill of Horror Film exhibit. → See our MoPop visit here
The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado: While not a filming location, it inspired Stephen King’s original novel and is a must-visit for fans chasing the roots of the Overlook.
Nearby Filming Locations To Explore
The Ring (2002) – Shot across Seattle, Whidbey Island, Port Townsend, and Fidalgo Island, where you’ll likely experience rain that perfectly matches the film’s vibe.
→ Explore The Ring filming locations
Twin Peaks (Pilot) – Head into Washington where you can visit the real Great Northern and the diner where Agent Cooper gets his damn fine coffee.
→ Read our firsthand guide to Twin Peaks locations
The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992) – Filmed around Tacoma and Seattle, this early-‘90s thriller has some unexpectedly scenic stops.
→ Check out the filming locations here
Twilight in Forks – Not horror, but the gloom is on-brand. Forks is drenched in pop culture and mist — and a super creepy doll.
→ Our full Forks trip breakdown
How We Verified These Locations
We’ve visited many of the locations featured in this post. For the rest, we rely on trusted sources like film commission data, production archives, and behind-the-scenes interviews. Our research is led by a full-time librarian and horror writer with 13+ years of experience.
Want More Like This?
To read more posts like this one, check out our A-Z Locations section, our firsthand visits to horror movie history, and our Destinations list of all the places we’ve been.
Got a Horror Travel Tip?
Been to the Timberline or Glacier? Planning a spooky road trip? We’d love to hear from you, drop us a comment or get in touch here and let us know what filming locations we should visit next.
It’s nice that a section for comments was added at the end of this very interesting and informative article. I immediately scrolled down to read what travelers had to say about their experiences. Unfortunately, none are available. I’m not sure if it is a problem with my browser, Netscape Navigator, or if it’s simply that no one has bothered to comment yet. If that’s the case, I hope there will be comments in the near future.
I myself have not seen any locations from The Shining, and most likely will not have the opportunity as I have IBS and Crohn’s disease, which keep me close to home at all times. I learned the hard way about being adventurous whilst plagued with these problems, which ended up in a dreadful and embarrassing mess. It was over a decade ago. The family and I decided to visit the second largest ball of twine in the world, located in Possumneck, Mississippi. It was either the high fiber indigenous foods we tried as we drove through a reservation, or the greasy Mexican food at several of the many rest stops. But whichever it was, our adventure ended. And fast. What was I thinking?
Lesson learned.
Sincerely,
Phillis A Winterford
I’m so sorry to hear that you’re kept close to home due to your IBS and IBD; I have ulcerative colitis and experience great anxiety on almost every road trip. It’s difficult to handle but I try and work with medications and other aids that enable me to try – being the operative word – and get out into the world. Please keep me posted if you ever do manage to venture out there!
Best,
Gem
Kubrick I believe also took inspiration from The Ahwahnee Hotel in California.