The landscapes and vistas behind that heart-stopping action on Yellowstone are so beautiful you may wonder if a place like that really exists or if it’s the product of a crafty computer programmer armed with amazing special effects software. Believe it or not, the stunning scenery portrayed as the Dutton family ranch is the real-life Chief Joseph Ranch. That’s right! Yellowstone is filmed at the Chief Joseph Ranch in Darby, Montana.

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Stay at the Yellowstone Ranch! Everything You Need to Know About the Real-Life Chief Joseph Ranch

If you’re like the rest of us, you’re doing anything and everything to pass the days while we impatiently wait for season 5 of Yellowstone. Another thing a lot of folks are doing is planning a much-needed summer vacation. And here’s the perfect opportunity for you to combine your love of travel and Yellowstone: a stay at the real-life ranch where the Kevin Costner-led Paramount series is filmed.

Related: Kevin Costner Says His Yellowstone Character Isn’t a Cowboy

Where is Yellowstone filmed?

The landscapes and vistas behind that heart-stopping action on Yellowstone are so beautiful you may wonder if a place like that really exists or if it’s the product of a crafty computer programmer armed with amazing special effects software. Believe it or not, the stunning scenery portrayed as the Dutton family ranch is the real-life Chief Joseph Ranch. That’s right! Yellowstone is filmed at the Chief Joseph Ranch in Darby, Montana.

Read on for everything you need to know about the Chief Joseph Ranch, including how you can spend a night.

Who was Chief Joseph?

Chief Joseph was a noted orator and chief of the Wallowa band of the Nez Perce tribe. He led his people across the ranch in his flight from the U.S. Army during the Nez Perce War in the summer of 1877.

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How did the ranch become known as the Chief Joseph Ranch? The 2,500-acre ranch property was homesteaded by settlers in 1880 when it became known as the Shelton ranch. In 1914, glass tycoon William S. Ford and Federal Judge Howard Clark Hollister bought the property and called it, appropriately, the Ford and Hollister Ranch. They began building what would become “one of the great log structures of the American West,” the Ford-Hollister Lodge. After completing their work, the main lodge was a jaw-dropping 6,000 square feet. After William Ford died, Mrs. May Ford and her daughters Phyllis and Billie Ann, opened and operated one of the first guest ranches in the West. Then, in the early 1950s, the Ford and Hollister Ranch was sold and renamed the Chief Joseph Ranch, in honor of the great Nez Perce chief and his journey through the property.

Twin Rock, Bluff Utah

On the northwest side of the majestically scenic Southwestern town of Bluff, Utah stands the rock pillars known as the Navajo Twins. Perched on a slight promontory rising above town, these geologic masterpieces are named for the mythical Hero Twins of Navajo legend. Sculpted by wind and water throughout many milliner, these towers have stood guard over numerous civilizations, the earliest of which was established in approximately 650 A.D. These silent sentinels now watch over a town of 250 modern-day pioneers who choose to call this village home.

Mexican Hat, one of Utah’s strangest rock formations, balances a flattened pancake disk atop a 300-foot-high talus cone. It’s really not a hat at all, but a sombrero with a wide brim jutting above a narrow head. The rock, a famed landmark along US 163, rises east of the highway above the west bank of the San Juan River.