The Shining was released in 10 screens in the US on May 23rd, 1980, expanding soon after to more theaters. Stephen King famously hated it, and it received mixed reviews in the beginning, but time has been kind and The Shining is a certified classic today.
Stephen King based the Overlook Hotel on the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, but it was the Timberline Lodge in Government Camp, Oregon that director Stanley Kubrick used for the original movie. Well, kind of…
Timberline Lodge was used for the aerial shots at the beginning of the movie, and several of the establishing shots throughout. All of the interiors, as well as the exterior scenes of characters outside the hotel, were filmed on sets that were constructed at Elstree Studios all the way in England.
The lodge is located on Mount Hood and was built between 1936 and 1938. It is on the National Register of Historic Places, and is also a National Historic Landmark. It is open for skiing and snowboarding year-round. (I was not aware that there would actually be snow on the ground when I visited in July. Crazy!)
Movie Location: The Overlook Hotel
Filming Location: 27500 E. Timberline Rd., Government Camp, OR 97028
Date of Photos: July 2024
These establishing shots, along with some of the aerial shots towards the beginning of the movie, are about the only scenes that were actually filmed at the real Timberline Lodge. Everything else was recreated on sets in England at Elstree Studios.
The comparison shots below were just for fun and do not actually show the filming locations in the screenshots. Any of the closeup shots of the actors outside the hotel were filmed on a replica of the hotel in Elstree Studios in England. I always thought they had made a perfect replica of Timberline Lodge, but it doesn’t actually match up, but I wanted to try and get them as close as I could to the real thing.
All of the interior scenes were also filmed on sets in England and they bear no resemblance to the interiors of the real hotel, but I also snapped some comparison shots just for fun.
Additional pictures I took:
This is the view from the 2nd floor balcony of the hotel:
Back and side of the hotel:
Back of the hotel:
View of Mt. Hood from behind the hotel:
The main entrance to Timberline Lodge:
This is right outside the front doors of the lodge:
Hallway right off the main entrance:
2nd floor sitting area/fireplace:
Sign on the fireplace:
One of the hallways of guest rooms:
They only had this one sign talking about The Shining, though to be fair, that’s about the same percentage of their museum as was actually filmed here.
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