Was ‘Untamed’ Actually Filmed in Yosemite National Park or Yellowstone National Park?

An unsolved murder. The treacherous, untamed wilderness. And horses — police horses. Netflix’s newest crime drama Untamed just hit the streaming platform, presenting a gripping murder mystery wrapped in the gorgeous frontier of Yosemite National Park. But was the show actually filmed in Yosemite? Read on to find out.

In case you haven’t had the chance to watch it yet, the new limited series begins when the bloodied body of a young woman catapults down a cliff. Is it an animal attack? A suicide? No one knows, but National Park Service special agent Kyle Turner (Eric Bana) has a hunch that it’s not as simple as all that. With rookie ranger Naya Vasquez (Lily Santiago) by his side, Kyle must brave the unpredictable wilderness to uncover the truth of what happened, all while grappling with his own trauma and grief.

If viewers can stand to rip their eyes away from all the intense drama, they are sure to notice the beautiful woodland backdrop in which much of the action takes place. They might be tempted to book a flight to Yosemite just to take in the view in person, but we here at Decider urge you to hold off on that until you finish reading. Things aren’t always as they seem, especially when Hollywood magic comes into play. Here’s what we know about the real filming locations of Untamed.

Where Was Untamed Filmed? Is That Actually Yosemite National Park? Or Yellowstone National Park, Perhaps?

Don’t let the show’s wide-panning shots of the real Yosemite fool you — not only was it not actually filmed in Yosemite, it wasn’t even filmed in the U.S.! According to Radio Times and Time Out, the crew found much of their Yosemite lookalikes in the Canadian province of British Columbia, specifically in Whistler, a town north of Vancouver that’s well known as one of the best skiing resort areas in the world.

The crew used a few different parks to pose as Yosemite forests, including Chip Kerr Park in Port Moody and North Vancouver’s Greenwood Park. Vancouver’s Grace Lake doubles for Yosemite’s Grouse Lake, which has haunting legends attached to it that connect to the story in ways we won’t spoil here. And when that body falls off the cliff of El Capitan, viewers are actually seeing the cliff of the popular Vancouver hiking site Mount Seymour. 

Though the crew were unable to actually film in Yosemite National Park, it was important for them to replicate the setting with care. Co-showrunner Mark L. Smith talks to Tudum about the importance of Yosemite to the atmosphere of the show:

“Everyone thinks of Yosemite as this beautiful place with all the vistas and all the scenery, but we were trying to touch on the dangers that are just beyond that. I love stripping all the cheats away, stripping all the more modern tools that people can use. It really gets down to the character and what they can find within themselves.”

Watch Untamed now on Netflix.