Horizon: Aloy's American West

Horizon Zero Dawn begins with Aloy cast out from the Nora tribe at birth and raised by the outcast Rost. In the game, Colorado Springs sits near where she grew up, squarely under the Nora's view. The real Garden of the Gods preserves the red sandstone beds of that country: a 1,341-acre park in Colorado Springs, with 862 acres designated a National Natural Landmark in 1971. A paved 1.5-mile trail runs through the heart of the formations, and both the park and its visitor centre are free.

Location precision: The game puts Colorado Springs near Aloy's homeland but does not model a specific spot; the pin marks Garden of the Gods.

Visitor guidance: The park is free and open daily; the paved Perkins Central Garden Trail starts at the north parking lot.

West of Devil's Grief, the game places Red Echoes, a corrupted zone of red-tinged machines where Aloy meets her allies before the fight at the Ring of Metal. Its stone seating comes from Red Rocks Amphitheatre, an open-air venue ten miles southwest of Denver, where two massive monoliths flank 9,525 seats. It opened in 1941 and has hosted U2's 1984 concert film, among many others. In Horizon its stone rows are overgrown with nature and occupied by machines.

Location precision: Red Echoes is a game location; the pin marks Red Rocks Amphitheatre, the venue its seating is modelled on.

Visitor guidance: Red Rocks is an active concert venue; check the schedule before visiting the amphitheatre.

Masked cultists attack the Proving and kill many Nora; the Eclipse had used the Ring of Metal, the game's name for Denver's old football stadium, before the massacre. Aloy returns to Devil's Grief — Denver, overrun by nature and machines in the 31st century — to take her revenge. In the real city, Empower Field at Mile High has housed the Denver Broncos since 2001 and sits 5,280 feet above sea level, one mile high. The stadium is due to be replaced in 2031.

Location precision: The Ring of Metal exists only in the game; the pin marks Empower Field at Mile High, the real Denver stadium it stands in for.

Visitor guidance: The stadium sits in Denver's Sun Valley neighbourhood, beside Interstate 25.

Aloy reaches the Bryce Orbital, an ancient facility where many of her questions begin to get answers. The facility shares its name with Bryce Canyon National Park; no source says the game models the park itself. The real park, in southwestern Utah, is not a canyon at all but a collection of giant natural amphitheaters lined with hoodoos — pillars formed by frost weathering and stream erosion in red, orange and white rock. Its rim runs between 8,000 and 9,000 feet, and eight maintained day hikes cross the formations. It receives far fewer visitors than Zion next door.

Location precision: The Bryce Orbital exists only in the game; the pin marks Bryce Canyon National Park, whose name it shares.

Visitor guidance: Bryce Canyon has eight maintained day hikes and is quieter than Zion.

In the final battle, Aloy and her allies defend Meridian, the capital of the Carja kingdom, against an Eclipse siege and the awakened Faro machines. Meridian is fictional, but the game's Eagle Canyon vantage point looks out over it. The real Eagle Canyon is a deep Utah canyon where the bridges of Interstate 70 cross high above; in Horizon those spans become the bridges between Meridian's rocks. It is a place for off-roading and canyoneering.

Location precision: Meridian exists only in the game; the pin marks Eagle Canyon, the real vantage point that looks out over its fictional site.

Visitor guidance: The canyon is reached off Interstate 70; expect rough roads for off-roading and canyoneering.

The Frozen Wilds takes Aloy north to the Cut, a snowbound region corresponding to a post-apocalyptic Yellowstone National Park, while the events of Zero Dawn are still unfolding. She investigates a mysterious entity called the Daemon and climbs Thunder's Drum, an active volcano. Inside she finds Firebreak, an ancient project built to stabilise the Yellowstone Caldera and prevent a catastrophic eruption. The real Yellowstone, mainly in north-west Wyoming, was the first national park in the US and the world; well over half the world's geysers are there, Old Faithful among them.

Location precision: The Cut is a fictional region; the pin marks Yellowstone National Park, the real landscape it corresponds to.

Visitor guidance: Yellowstone's roads close to wheeled vehicles from early November to mid-April.

Forbidden West opens with Aloy and Varl crossing into the West to find the Tenakth, passing through the Daunt and the border fort at Barren Light. Guerrilla placed that red rock canyon in today's Zion National Park in southern Utah. Zion Canyon is 15 miles long and up to 2,640 feet deep, cut through reddish Navajo sandstone by the North Fork of the Virgin River. Seven trails range from half an hour to four hours, including Angels Landing; the park drew 4,984,525 visitors in 2025.

Location precision: The Daunt and Barren Light are fictional; the pin marks Zion National Park, the real canyon behind them.

Visitor guidance: Zion Canyon has seven maintained trails; the park drew almost five million visitors in 2025.

Searching for Poseidon, Aloy enters the Stillsands and finds the flooded ruins of Las Vegas hidden under the sands: Dunehollow. She pieces together data left a millennium earlier by a businessman named Stanley Chen and restarts the city's water systems to reach the subsystem. After the Sea of Sands quest, a settlement called Hidden Ember grows around the ruins, and holograms light the collapsed skyline. The real Strip is a 4.2-mile stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard known for its resort hotels and casinos.

Location precision: Dunehollow and the Stillsands are fictional; the pin marks the Las Vegas Strip, the city the ruins re-create.

Visitor guidance: The Strip runs 4.2 miles along Las Vegas Boulevard.

In the west, San Francisco survives as the Isle of Spires, a drowned archipelago. Aloy recovers the Demeter subsystem here with Alva of the Quen, whose people have settled at Legacy's Landfall. The Transamerica Pyramid becomes the base for the dig into Ted Faro's Thebes bunker, and the remains of the Golden Gate Bridge still stand in the water. The real pyramid is a 48-story, 853-foot tower completed in 1972, the second tallest in the city; it is a popular tourist site.

Location precision: The Isle of Spires is a fictional drowned San Francisco; the pin marks the Transamerica Pyramid, the real tower used for Thebes.

Visitor guidance: The Transamerica Pyramid is a popular tourist site in San Francisco.