Vulcan planet shot in San Rafael Swell in eastern Utah

Vulcan planet shot in San Rafael Swell in eastern Utah


3 photos
Save Story
Leer en espaƱol

Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

(Photo courtesy Mike McCandless)

SALT LAKE CITY -- If you go to the new "Star Trek" film this weekend, you'll be seeing Utah scenery. Spock's homeland Vulcan was shot in Emery County, in an area called San Rafael Swell in eastern Utah.

Emery County Economic Director Mike McCandless said the crew spent five days at the reef. He said the area had, "a significantly uplifted section of sandstone rocks that are very jagged and rough in nature, it's very arid."

In this film publicity image released by Paramount Pictures, Zachary Quinto as Spock, left, and Chis Pine as James T. Kirk are shown in a scene from, "Star Trek." (AP Photo/Paramount Pictures, Industrial Light & Magic)
In this film publicity image released by Paramount Pictures, Zachary Quinto as Spock, left, and Chis Pine as James T. Kirk are shown in a scene from, "Star Trek." (AP Photo/Paramount Pictures, Industrial Light & Magic)

The reef area is designated as wilderness. "And that was also something very attractive on the filming side because you had an area where they wouldn't have to, you know, digitally edit out roads," he said.

And it seems the crew couldn't get enough of the scenery. "[They were] almost begging me to stay because they wanted to find more stuff."

The county saw $100,000 in direct benefit, but McCandless expects interest in the area to peak because of what happened after the movie "Galaxy Quest."

He said, "We still, to this day, continue to get requests for people to come to Goblin Valley because of a 5 minute scene in that movie."

The area was selected because it worked well with the set in California at Vasquez Rocks.

The San Rafael Swell is located about 12 miles from the town of Green River.

E-mail: sworsley@ksl.com

Photos

Related links

Most recent Utah stories

Related topics

Utah
Sheryl Worsley

    STAY IN THE KNOW

    Get informative articles and interesting stories delivered to your inbox weekly. Subscribe to the KSL.com Trending 5.
    By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

    KSL Weather Forecast