Guest photographs · the Overlook, 1980
The Overlook never existed. It was put together from real buildings: a lodge on Mount Hood, a lounge in Yosemite, a studio outside London, and a hotel in the Rockies where the story began.
Every frame on this wall hangs a little crooked.
Jack NicholsonJack · 1976
Shelley DuvallWendy · 1976
Stanley KubrickDirector · 1971
Stephen KingNovelist · 1984
GThe road up
The film’s opening aerial shots include Saint Mary Lake. The opening follows a Volkswagen Beetle along Going-to-the-Sun Road.
High summer: the whole road is open and the boats are sailing.
Glacier National Park, Montana · Adults $41.70 · 1.5 hours · 5 June–12 September (2026)
From the Rising Sun dock past Wild Goose Island, the lake from the opening, with a stop at Baring Falls.
See sailingsGlacier National Park, Montana · No fee beyond park entry
The road from the opening, about 50 miles over Logan Pass. Open end to end in summer only; check the park’s page for the coming season’s rules.
Plan the driveSt. Mary Visitor Center: The east end of Going-to-the-Sun Road, at the foot of St. Mary Lake. No extra fee for the road beyond park entry.
1The hotel
Tap a part of the hotel. The outside and the lounge are 862 km apart; the lounge and the stage it was rebuilt on, 8,463 km.
The hotel here is drawn for this page.
Mount Hood, Oregon
The outside answers from Mount Hood, Oregon.
Timberline Lodge was used for the exterior shots at the beginning of the film.
Kubrick’s archive keeps his location photographs of Timberline, the model for the Overlook’s outside.
A working hotel and ski lodge at 6,000 feet, open all year. Lodge reservations: (503) 272-3410.
Mount Hood, Oregon · Reservations (503) 272-3410
The Overlook’s outside, on Mount Hood. Lodge rooms and chalets, open all year; Room 217 is the one people ask for.
Check rooms2The front desk
Lift a key off the board.
Room 217 is real twice over: at the Stanley, where the book began, and at Timberline, where the film was not allowed to use it.
3Stage 3
On 24 January 1979 a fire broke out in Stage 3, home to the Colorado Lounge set. The stage was rebuilt, taller.
The typed line above is how the day’s production report put it.
4The grounds
The Stanley unveiled a 10,100-square-foot juniper maze in the summer of 2015, inspired by the hedge maze in Kubrick’s film. The junipers were kept to about three feet high, so you can see over them. Walk it here, and find six real places at its dead ends.
You are at the gate. The hedges are film height: you can only see the next turn.
Found: 0 of 6
New York architect Mairim Dallaryan Standing won the design contest, from 329 entries from 34 countries; her layout hides an S and an H.
On the hotel grounds. Free, all day, every day.
Estes Park, Colorado · $35 · 60 minutes · up to 14 · ages 8+
An hour on the novel, Kubrick’s film and King’s 1997 miniseries: why the film was not made here, and why the miniseries was.
Book the tourThis maze is drawn for this page; it is not the Stanley’s layout or the film’s.
5The archive
The archive is kept at the Archives and Special Collections Centre, London College of Communication; it is open Monday to Friday by appointment.
Elephant and Castle, London · Monday–Friday, by appointment
Kubrick’s papers, by appointment, at London College of Communication: his location photographs for the film are here.
Ask for an appointmentTHE STANLEY KUBRICK ARCHIVE · THE SHINING
For The Shining it holds location photographs of Timberline and the Ahwahnee, hundreds of photographs of lighting models, and drawings of the façade built on the Elstree backlot. It also holds a scrapbook prop built from Colorado newspaper cuttings of 1920 to 1972, which hardly appears in the film, and letters to Saul Bass about the poster.
A blank page in the carriage. Press any key on it, or Type.
LCheck out
Not on the map
9 places on the map. Elstree Studios is a working studio: see it from Shenley Road. The two rooms 217 and the Stanley’s maze sit inside their hotels.
Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working hotel and ski lodge at 6,000 feet, open all year. Lodge reservations: (503) 272-3410.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working hotel at 333 E Wonderview Avenue. Book tours ahead; they never go onto guest floors.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A hotel inside Yosemite National Park; the dining room asks for reservations and proper attire at dinner.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. About 50 miles, crossing the Continental Divide at Logan Pass. The whole road is open in summer only; vehicles over 21 feet long or 8 feet wide are barred on the high section.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. See it from the Wild Goose Island Overlook on Going-to-the-Sun Road: parking and an accessible viewing area.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Boats sail from 5 June to 12 September: 1.5 hours, or 3.5 with a walk. Adults $41.70 in 2026.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. The east end of Going-to-the-Sun Road, at the foot of St. Mary Lake. No extra fee for the road beyond park entry.
Mount Hood, Oregon
Timberline Lodge was used for the exterior shots at the beginning of the film.
A working hotel and ski lodge at 6,000 feet, open all year. Lodge reservations: (503) 272-3410.
Estes Park, Colorado
In late September 1974 Stephen King and his wife Tabitha spent a night at the Stanley. They were the only guests: the hotel closed for the winter the next day.
A working hotel at 333 E Wonderview Avenue. Book tours ahead; they never go onto guest floors.
Yosemite Valley, California
The Overlook’s Colorado Lounge was modelled directly on the Ahwahnee, and its ornament reinvented on a vast soundstage at Elstree by the production designer Roy Walker.
A hotel inside Yosemite National Park; the dining room asks for reservations and proper attire at dinner.
Glacier National Park, Montana
The opening follows a Volkswagen Beetle along Going-to-the-Sun Road.
About 50 miles, crossing the Continental Divide at Logan Pass. The whole road is open in summer only; vehicles over 21 feet long or 8 feet wide are barred on the high section.
Glacier National Park, Montana
The film’s opening aerial shots include Saint Mary Lake.
See it from the Wild Goose Island Overlook on Going-to-the-Sun Road: parking and an accessible viewing area.
St. Mary Lake, Montana
St. Mary Lake tours leave the Rising Sun boat dock and pass Wild Goose Island, stopping at Baring Falls.
Boats sail from 5 June to 12 September: 1.5 hours, or 3.5 with a walk. Adults $41.70 in 2026.
St. Mary entrance, Glacier National Park
Going-to-the-Sun Road runs about 50 miles between the West Entrance and the St. Mary Entrance, past the St. Mary Visitor Center.
The east end of Going-to-the-Sun Road, at the foot of St. Mary Lake. No extra fee for the road beyond park entry.
Stay
Timberline, where 217 is the room people ask for; the Stanley, where King slept in it; the Ahwahnee, whose lounge the film copied.
Mount Hood, Oregon · Reservations (503) 272-3410
The Overlook’s outside, on Mount Hood. Lodge rooms and chalets, open all year; Room 217 is the one people ask for.
Check roomsEstes Park, Colorado
The 217 Spirited Grand King, the corner room where the hotel says King began to shape the story. Pictured: a guest corridor at the Stanley.
Check the roomYosemite Valley, California
The hotel whose lounge became the Overlook’s Colorado Lounge. A National Historic Landmark in Yosemite Valley.
Check roomsGo there
The Stanley’s own tours, the lake by boat, the road from the opening, and Kubrick’s papers in London.
Estes Park, Colorado · $35 · 60 minutes · up to 14 · ages 8+
An hour on the novel, Kubrick’s film and King’s 1997 miniseries: why the film was not made here, and why the miniseries was.
Book the tourEstes Park, Colorado · $35 · 60 minutes · up to 20 · ages 8+
An hour around the hotel and grounds after dark with a storyteller. It never goes onto guest floors.
Book the tourGlacier National Park, Montana · Adults $41.70 · 1.5 hours · 5 June–12 September (2026)
From the Rising Sun dock past Wild Goose Island, the lake from the opening, with a stop at Baring Falls.
See sailingsGlacier National Park, Montana · No fee beyond park entry
The road from the opening, about 50 miles over Logan Pass. Open end to end in summer only; check the park’s page for the coming season’s rules.
Plan the driveElephant and Castle, London · Monday–Friday, by appointment
Kubrick’s papers, by appointment, at London College of Communication: his location photographs for the film are here.
Ask for an appointmentMount Hood, Oregon
Live marketplace results for day trips from Portland to Mount Hood and Timberline Lodge. Check each itinerary.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
Compare toursGlacier National Park, Montana
Live marketplace results for guided trips on Going-to-the-Sun Road. Check each itinerary for St. Mary Lake.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
Compare toursWhat’s on
The Stanley’s Shining Ball on 24 October and its Halloween nights.
Checking current event dates…
Take it home
Original posters from our store, King’s novel, the making-of books and the soundtrack LP.
An original 1980 US one-sheet with Saul Bass’s artwork, 27 × 41 in, near mint.
In stock
View posterAn original 1980 French release poster, 40 × 60 cm.
Sold out · archive reference
View posterStephen King
The novel, with Room 217 as he wrote it.
Find the bookJ. W. Rinzler and Lee Unkrich
The making of the film, from the archive.
Find the bookAlison Castle (ed.)
Every film, from the papers in London.
Find the bookRoger Luckhurst
A short, close reading of the film.
Find the bookWendy Carlos & Rachel Elkind, Ligeti, Bartók, Penderecki · LP, Warner Bros. HS 3449, 1980
The 1980 US LP: Carlos and Elkind’s main title with Ligeti, Bartók and Penderecki.
Live marketplace search · listings and condition change
Find a copyDates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.
Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.
12 of 12 places · 10 of 10 Moments
Mount Hood, Oregon
Timberline Lodge is the hotel in the exterior shots at the start of the film.
Mount Hood, Oregon
The book’s Room 217 became 237 in the film, a number Timberline does not have.
Estes Park, Colorado
Estes Park, Colorado
King had the bones of the book after a night at the Stanley in 1974.
Estes Park, Colorado
In 2015 the Stanley planted a juniper maze inspired by the one in the film.
Yosemite Valley, California
The Colorado Lounge was modelled directly on the Ahwahnee and rebuilt on a soundstage at Elstree.
Glacier National Park, Montana
The opening follows a Volkswagen Beetle along Going-to-the-Sun Road.
Glacier National Park, Montana
The opening aerial shots include Saint Mary Lake.
St. Mary Lake, Montana
St. Mary entrance, Glacier National Park
Shenley Road, Borehamwood
A full-scale section of the Overlook’s outside was built on the Elstree backlot.
On 24 January 1979 Stage 3, with the Colorado Lounge set, caught fire.
London College of Communication, Elephant and Castle
Kubrick’s photographs of Timberline and the Ahwahnee are in his archive.
.jpg){kind=link}
.jpg){kind=link}
_-_Flickr_-_aparlette.jpg){kind=link}
.jpg){kind=link}
.jpg){kind=link}
.jpg){kind=link}