About an hour and a half from Los Angeles is a high desert valley whose rugged, picturesque beauty has made it one of the most popular filming locations around. Victor Valley is situated in the Mojave Desert and framed by the San Gabriel Mountains to the southwest and the San Bernardino Mountains to the south, and it encompasses a handful of towns that include Victorville, Apple Valley, Adelanto, and Hesperia. Although LA is just across the historic Cajon Pass on the other side of the San Gabriels,
the wild desert landscape here feels like a world away, which is why it has been so popular since the early days of film.
Whether you're looking for a quick getaway or heading to Barstow, a Route 66 pitstop town with hidden gems all around, Victor Valley is great for a scenic road trip from the City of Angels for those looking to experience the quiet, expansive wildness in this desert location, where you can see sites like the impressive Mormon Rocks formation and the curved slopes of Bell Mountain. It's not just the untamed atmosphere that has made it stand out; with sites like the Mojave Narrows Regional Park and the Mojave River, the area has proven to be visually diverse enough to serve as the backdrop for films like "Stagecoach," "Ocean's Eleven," and "Kill Bill: Vol. 2."
Read more: The 5 Best Hidden Hot Spring Hikes In California
How Victor Valley Became Hollywood's Go-To Location
In the early days of cinema, Victorville was a go-to filming location thanks to its proximity to Los Angeles and the town's ready-made Wild West vibe of saloons, brothels, and desert landscape. In fact, in 1928, the New York Times called the town "second only to Hollywood as a motion picture production centre," where more exteriors were shot than anywhere else in the United States, excluding Tinseltown itself.
The town's Chamber of Commerce quickly realized the economic potential of filming in Victorville, so in the late 1910s, they sent out photographs of the area to all the major studios, showcasing the diverse landscape and possibilities for all sorts of filming scenarios in craggy rocks, mountain passes, dusty deserts, and Old West towns. The marketing worked, and since the '20s, Victorville has been home to hundreds of film productions. The Southern California Logistics Airport, in particular, has become a hotbed of Hollywood productions like "Contact," "Tenet," and "Face/Off," making Victor Valley a perfect destination for film lovers that isn't Hollywood.
Horror fans may want to see if the hills of Apple Valley have eyes, since in 2020, YouTuber Justin Scarred did a deep dive to figure out where exactly Wes Craven's 1977 nightmare-inducing cult classic was filmed. For years, it was said that Craven shot "The Hills Have Eyes" outside of Victorville, but the details remained vague until Scarred pinpointed the exact location to a spot between Apple Valley and Victorville, near Bell Mountain. Visit if you dare, but beware of the hills after dark.
The Outdoor Adventures And Historic Sites Of Victor Valley
Film buffs will have no shortage of sites to see in Victor Valley. Emma Jean's Holland Burger Cafe has been a Victorville staple since 1947 and was the cafe where Uma Thurman's Bride eats after escaping her grave in "Kill Bill: Vol. 2." In 1940, Orson Welles sent Herman J. Mankiewicz to the Verde Ranch -- now the Kemper Campbell Ranch -- to write the script for "Citizen Kane." Mankiewicz was an alcoholic, and Welles needed him to focus far from the temptations of Hollywood, so it was here that the screenwriter produced a 270-page first draft of the script. You can stay at the Kemper Campbell Ranch to immerse yourself in a significant part of film history.
If you're interested in the wilderness of Victor Valley, you can hike part of the Pacific Crest Trail in the Cajon Pass, which is just one of several hiking trails in the area. More easily accessible is the Mojave Narrows Regional Park, where you can explore waterways and wildlife in this area around an old riverbed.
The best way to reach Victor Valley is to drive from LA. The scenic route will take you through the Cajon Pass, which runs alongside railroad tracks that make it a favorite location for railfans, and which are an integral part of the history of this mountain pass that has connected California with the Southwest for centuries. Victorville is part of historic Route 66, and avid road trippers can explore the kitschy Americana history of the "mother road" at the California Route 66 Museum on D Street.
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