If you like the moves Jurassic Park and Jurassic World, and happen to go to the Oahu island of Hawaii, you have to go visit Kualoa Ranch.
In this article, I will show you what you can expect from the Jurassic Adventure Tour, and which exact scenes, from which movie, were filmed in the Kualoa Ranch.
- Where was Jurassic Park (or World) Filmed in Hawaii?
- Jurassic Adventure Tour Review
- Check-in & Departure
- Bunker
- Ka’a’awa Valley
- Gallimimus Log (Jurassic Park)
- Control Center’s Escape Hatch & Owen’s Hill (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom)
- Control Center’s Entrance (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom)
- Gyrosphere Station (Jurassic World)
- Helipad Location (Jurassic World)
- Indominus Rex’s Paddock (Jurassic World)
- Wrap-up
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Where was Jurassic Park (or World) Filmed in Hawaii?
In the movies, the parks were supposed to have been built on an island of Costa Rica.
In reality, however, many of the scenes were actually shot on the islands of Oahu and Kauai in Hawaii.
Most of the filming on Oahu was done at Kualoa Ranch, a major tourist facility, and it is what I am going to talk about in this article.
Due to its vast land and unique landscape, it is also a classic location that has been used to shoot many Hollywood movies in addition to the Jurassic franchise.
Jurassic Adventure Tour Review
As a huge fan of the series, I participated in the “Jurassic Adventure Tour” at this Kualoa Ranch in November 2021, and took a lot of pictures.
*2.5 Hour Deluxe Jurassic Movie Set Adventure Tour in the linked page is the tour I participated in.
You can see many sets that actually appeared in the movie, so it is recommended for fans of this movie when going to Hawaii.
| Tour Name | Jurassic Adventure Tour |
|---|---|
| Duration | 2.5 hours |
| Price | Adult: $139.95 Child: $69.95 |
| Reservation | Kualoa Ranch Movie Tour – HawaiiActivities.com |
I will show you how the tour goes, along with the photos of the tour that I actually took.
1. Check-in & Departure
First, check in at the meeting place. We will go around in the car below.
The tour guide will give you various information while driving.
2. Bunker
We came to bunker. Inside, there are posters of many movies shot at Kualoa Ranch.
Of course, Jurassic Park and Jurassic World.
There were also Indominus Rex and Velociraptor near the exit.
Now, from here, we will go around the actual shooting locations and sets.
3. Ka’a’awa Valley
This Ka’a’awa Valley is characterized by the shape of the surrounding mountains, and many movies and dramas have been shot.
It seems to be one of the standard locations when shooting vast nature such as American version Godzilla, Jumanji, the drama Lost, etc.
Of course, many Jurassic series have been shot. First of all, the scene where the main characters run through with a flock of Gallimimus in the movie Jurassic Park.
In Jurassic World 2 (Fallen Kingdom), the landscape of the mountains is reversed horizontally in the Brachiosaurus scene.
Similarly, the mountain range is reversed in the scene of the crew driving to the facility in Jurassic World 2 (Fallen Kingdom).
The volcano that erupts in Jurassic World 2 (Fallen Kingdom) is CGI, so there is no such mountain in reality, but the surrounding mountains you see in the movie are directly from this valley.
4. Gallimimus Log (Jurassic Park)
This big log is the first stop in the Ka’a’ava Valley.
This is the log used to escape the Gallimimus herd at Jurassic Park.
The tour guide will take a picture of you in front of this tree.
I could see the building in the photo above from the car, but I didn’t know what it was and took a photo in a hurry.
However, as long as I actually check the movie again, it doesn’t seem to appear in any scene.
When I searched online, there was information that “a facility that maintains the gyrosphere”, but I could not reach a conclusion.
We stopped when we came to this scenic spot.
5. Control Center’s Escape Hatch & Owen’s Hill (Jurassic World 2: Fallen Kingdom)
You can see something like concrete on the right side of the photo.
This is actually the escape hatch used by Claire and Franklin, who were attacked by the dinosaur (Baryonyx) in the Control Room of Jurassic World 2 (Fallen Kingdom).
It actually didn’t look that big when viewed from a distance, but you can tell from this scene in the movie that the lid is about the same size as human body.
In the movie, Owen desperately runs down the hill shortly after this, and this scene was also shot at the same place.
He ran down in the direction of escape hatch from about where I took the picture. The tour guide told us that he had to run down this hill many times until they got the take they wanted.
6. Control Room’s Entrance (Jurassic World 2: Fallen Kingdom)
We could also see the entrance to the control room.
This appears when the protagonists enter to confirm Blue’s whereabouts.
If you compare it closely, the lamp on the top of the door is removed, but this is because styrofoam and plywood are used when making the set, and it does not have long-term durability.
It’s amazing how it actually looks like concrete.
By the way, it’s a little far from the escape hatch I introduced earlier, and they seem to have made separate sets for the entrance scene and the escape scene.
7. Gyrosphrere Platform (Jurassic World)
Now to the station for our dream vehicle, Gyrosphere.
It seems that the part that looked like a railroad track was filled up for the tour.
The fence seems to have changed, but the roof and pillars are the same as in the movie.
By the way, the mountain range seen from here coincides with the right side of the scene where the crew visits the site of the park in Fallen Kingdom.
It hurt my eyes to find this and I don’t know if there is anyone else on the planet who found this outside of the production crew.
After this, we returned to the first meeting place and took a 10-minute break.
8. Helipad Location (Jurassic World)
After the break, we reached the point where you can see the fishpond on your left.
Overlooking the fishpond and Kaneohe Bay, this area is where the “Jurassic World” helipad was built.
Unfortunately, the helipad itself has been removed because it has weathered, but it is still the same as the photo taken from the sea on another tour of Kualoa Ranch.
And this helipad is also the place where T-Rex roared at the end of Jurassic World.
The scene is so cool that I almost thought the entire movie was made for T-Rex to roar.
The direction T-Rex is facing while roaring is the Pacific Ocean in reality, so all the buildings and mountains you see in the movie are CGI.
Also, it is said that the fishpond below the hill was used in the scene where Mosasaurus eats a hanging shark, but I could not tell how exactly it was used due to the heavy use of CGI in that particular scene.
9. Indominus Rex Paddock (Jurassic World)
Lastly, one of the most iconic and obvious filming locations, the Indominas Rex paddock.
The upper wall is partially missing. This is also due to weathering.
Wrap-up
How was it? Isn’t it actually amazing how many scenes were filmed in this one location?
From easy-to-see sets to hard-to-see mountains, I’ve introduced as much as I could so far.
The vast land of the Ka’a’awa Valley, which has many scenes in the series, and the mountains surrounding it are unique, and it is understandable that many works other than the Jurassic series have been shot here.
I highly recommend that you watch Jurassic Park and Jurassic World (especially Jurassic World 1 & 2) before participating the tour.
Detail and Reservation: Kualoa Ranch’s “Jurassic Adventure Tour”
* 2.5 Hour Deluxe Jurassic Movie Set Adventure Tour is the one I participated in.