Visiting High School Musical’s East High
Tour the set of the iconic film, High School Musical with this mini travel guide. In this guide we share everything you need to know before you go, including, when to go, what to bring, and all about our experience visiting East High.
Calling all fans of High School Musical to Salt Lake City for a tour of East High! As soon as I learned that High School Musical was filmed in Utah AND that you could visit the set it immediately went on my bucket list.
After all, how many places can you sing your favorite High School Musical songs right where they were filmed?! The days leading up to our visit we had the movies playing none stop and I can’t tell you how excited I was. I actually turned Mike into a fan. We spent one late afternoon exploring East High with the free self guided tour provided by the school and it was so much fun! In this post we are sharing everything you can see and all about our experience there.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
About East High
Getting to East High
When to Visit
What to Bring
About the Tour
ABOUT EAST HIGH
East High also known as Salt Lake High School East is a public high school in Salt Lake City, Utah. It was founded in 1913 and serves grades 9 through 12 in general and special education. It enrolls about 2,000 students with their mascot actually being the Leopard’s not the Wildcats.
East High was the set for the all three High School Musical movies as well as the tv series, High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. When you visit East High you can pick up a detailed map guiding you to the movies iconic scenes, such as, Sharpay’s Locker, the cafeteria, the gym, and much more.
GETTING TO EAST HIGH
East High is located in Salt Lake City, Utah in the East Central District. It’s central location make it an easy stop while visiting Salt Lake City. There is parking in front of the school however spots are limited. There is side street parking in the area so that is an option if there is no spot at the school.
WHEN TO GO
East High offers self guided tours Monday through Friday from 3:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. on school days.
We recommend going as late as possible unless you want to see all the students that attend East High. We got to the school around 5 p.m. and there was still a handful of students there and I’m not going to lie, it was a little weird. But don’t let that stop you, we weren’t the only people there that didn’t actually go to East High.
We also heard from multiple people that fans come to see the school everyday so it’s completely normal for them to see random people visiting and taking pictures. We even had a couple students offer to take our pictures because it’s so common to have visitors for the movies.
WHAT TO BRING
The only two things you really need when visiting East High is a camera and a tripod for recreating the movies iconic moments.
ABOUT THE TOUR
East High is a three story building splitting this tour into 3 floors.
MAIN FLOOR & ENTRANCE
Once you get inside East High there will be detailed maps left outside the office to your right. Right away you’ll get a view from above of the “Commons Area” where “Stick to the Status Quo” and varies other scenes where filmed. Even the tables that were used in the movie are there!
Also on this floor is the hallway for “What Time is it?”, the Media Center, Sharpay and Kelsie’s lockers, Ms. Darbus’s room ( however we couldn’t find it ), the auditorium, and the gym. We couldn't go into the auditorium or the gym because of student events going on.
Sharpay’s locker!
TOP FLOOR
Going up to the next floor is where Gabriella’s locker, Troy’s locker, the science room as well as varies hallway scenes were filmed. The science teacher told us we were lucky because normally you can’t go into the science room unless a teacher is present. Which makes sense because there’s A LOT of equipment in there.
The rooftop garden featured in the movie doesn’t actually exist. It was a set built for the movie.
Science Room.
BOTTOM FLOOR
Going down to the next floor is where the Auto Shop, the Year Book Room, and the Boys Locker room are located. The lights were off down here and there was some construction going on so we didn’t venture too far on this level.
Overall, visiting East High was a great experience. Once you push past the reality that it’s an actual school and you may see young kids around it’s pretty fun. I would totally go back again.
Let us know in the comments if you’ve ever visited East High!
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WE’RE MIKE & DEANDRA.
Two adventure seekers traveling the U.S in our 37 FT. travel trailer with our two companions, Griffin & Lucy. We share our life on the road and travel guides to our favorite destinations.
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