Filming locations in Moab

Visiting Moab: a set-jetting guide. The red-rock desert around this Utah town is one of the great American landscapes, all sheer overlooks and twisting river gorges, and it carries the unforgettable final scene of Thelma & Louise. Ridley Scott's 1991 road-trip drama ends at what the film calls the Grand Canyon, but the cliff edge the two women drive toward is in fact Dead Horse Point, just up the road from Moab.

Standing at that overlook, you see exactly why the filmmakers chose it over the real Grand Canyon. The land drops away in tiers of orange stone to a gooseneck bend of the Colorado River two thousand feet below, a view so vast and final it makes the closing freeze-frame inevitable. It is a place that rewards the pilgrimage even if you have never seen the film, and a quiet jolt of recognition if you have.

The point itself is the easy part: a Utah state park with a vehicle fee, where a short walk from the car park brings you to the dramatic rim. Sunrise and sunset are spectacular, the low sun setting the canyons alight. Beyond it, the scenery only gets bigger, with Canyonlands National Park adjoining the state park and the arches and fins of Arches National Park a short drive back toward town.

Moab is the obvious base for all of it, a friendly desert hub of motels, outfitters and diners built for exactly this kind of trip. Dead Horse Point sits about forty minutes away, so it pairs naturally with a morning or afternoon in one of the two national parks. Carry plenty of water, fill the tank before you set out, and respect the unfenced edges, which are as real and as sheer as they look on screen.