Bronson Canyon

Bronson Canyon, or Bronson Caves, is a section of Griffith Park in Los Angeles that has become known as a filming location for many films and television series, especially Westerns and science fiction, from the early days of motion pictures to the present.

In 1903, the Union Rock Company founded a quarry, originally named Brush Canyon, for excavation of crushed rock used in the construction of city streets–carried out of the quarry by electric train on the Brush Canyon Line.

The craggy quarry remains are pockmarked by what appear to be cave openings, and therefore create an ideal backdrop for filming scenes meant to take place in a lonely southwestern wilderness.

Scenes of the main cave entrance are normally filmed in a manner that shows the entrance at an angle because the cave is actually a very short tunnel through the hill, with the rear opening easily visible in a direct shot.

In fact the canyon is a rather small v-shaped area with the caves in the middle apex.