Filming Locations
This summer we headed to the West Coast to visit some filming locations in Twilight! Here are our pictures from each location, feel free to share but please give us credit as we have put a lot of effort into this trip. Since we only had a few days, we did not visit all of the movie locations, just our favorites which ended up being 10 spots! They are all numbered and labeled below, hope you enjoy what we wrote and feel free to contact us with any questions!
1. Kalama School (Forks High School Exteriors)
Kalama High School located in Kalama, Oregon was used as the exteriors of Forks High School. This spot is great for pictures as all the filming locations are in the parking lot.
2. Bella’s House
The location for Bellas house for the first movie is an actual house in the town of Mt. Saint Helen. For the rest of the movies, another house was made just for filming, the design looking identicle to this one on the outside. This house is aprivate residence so only pictures in the front of the house are allowed. They also a pitbull so watch out before you get out of your car.
3. Carver Cafe
We ate at Carver Cafe which is also the title it holds in the movie, being the local spot in Forks to eat. Described in the film as a regular, Charlie ate here almost every night as to not have to do dishes and cook. Bella and Charlie are seen here multiple times in the film in the front corner of the restaurant. This is also where Stephenie Meyer makes her appearance in the film, sitting at the counter of the restorant. Of course, we had to take a photo where the author was as well!
Fun fact, many of the same decorations inside the cafe are the same ones in the film! As seen in the film, the same table settings are still used. They have kept the look of the place almost the same, as they know that Twilight fans travel far and wide to eat at the restaurant.
4. The Cullen House
The Cullen House was built by one of the designers at Nike years ago, and is still a private residence today. Fans are welcome to take pictures from the road, but they ask that they do not come any closer as there are people activly living there. The house is on a hill which makes it look even larger than it already does (and beilieve me its huge) and has a very modern look both inside and outside. After Twilight, they built a similar model of this house inside a studio, but the exteriors were based on this house. Anyone who visits this house could easily picture the Cullens living here as it is very open and beautiful, but also hidden behind many trees.
5. Cannon Beach (La Push)
For anyone that has been to La Push in Washington, coming to Cannon Beach is like having deja vu! The location scouts on Twilight could not have picked a more realistic place to make La Push in the filming, it looks so similar. First, to get there, you must drive through the forest which looks identicle to the Hoh rainforest near Forks, with moss hanging from every branch and only the color green everywhere you look. Then once you get to the beach, you get an amazing view of rocks on the shore. If you are going to Oregon, I highly suggest you drive out of your way for this amazing beach!
6. The Bookstore
This the bookstore that Bella goes to in Port Angeles in Twilight to buy the book about Quileute legends and the cold ones. It is actually located in Mt. Saint Hellen, Oregon and it is actually a lawyers office and has been since before the filming. She told us that they cleaned out the whole front part of the store and filmed for about a week.
7. The Parking lot
The parking lot, alleyway, and bookstore are all located near each other in Mt. Saint Helen. The parking lot has the same paint on the walls, the only difference ins the new staires which are now brown instead of the movie where they were white. Here is a great place to park and walk around the town and see the other spots.
Some helpful tips:
Although they do not list addresses, the Directors Notebook (available at many stores including Barns and Noble) has all the behind the scenes on how Twilight was made. If you are considering taking the trip to see these places, this book is a must have in your back pocket!
Another helpful tip is that if you travel to La Push on the Quileute reservation, please be aware of the photography laws. Photos are to be used for personal use only, unless granted permission otherwise !