Q. What is it supposed to be on the show? A. A woods or forested area, probably a park. Q. Where is it supposed to be on the show? A. Somewhere near Boyd's patrol route, "out on County 5", in or near Miami. Q. When did we see it on the show? A. In Episode 4, of Season 5, "Beauty And The Beast". When Dexter killed Boyd, he discovered that one of Boyd's victims, a woman named Lumen, was watching. Not knowing what to do, Dexter held her captive, temporarily, in an abandoned park building. In this scene, assuming that Dexter is holding her for evil purposes, Lumen attempts to escape. When Dexter returns to the cabin, Lumen hits him with a bottle, bolts out the door, and locks the door behind her - then flees. That doesn't deter Dexter for long, though. He breaks down the door and chases after her. We see her run through the forest, then splash through a shallow creek, under a bridge, followed by Dexter in close pursuit. She eventually comes to a road, where she stops a car for help. But when she sees that the car is filled with young men, the traumatized woman backs off in fear, and the car drives off without her. Dexter leaps from the reeds and grabs Lumen, wrestling her to the ground, and trying to calm her. Q. What is it actually in real life? A. A city park, plus a rural road. Q. Where can I find it in real life? A. Most (but not all) of this scene was shot in El Dorado Park, in Long Beach, near the same spot where they filmed the scenes of the abandoned Visitors Welcome Center, where Dexter held Lumen captive.

The park's official address is 7550 E. Spring Street, but this scene was shot in the northern section of the large park, north of Wardlow. The "visitors center" is actually small ranger station, on the west bank of the big lake there.

The scene actually starts with that ranger station, where Lumen hits Dexter and escapes, and the early part of the chase is shot next to that cabin. And the Canary Island pines and reeds she runs through are clustered near the lake.

The wooden bridge we see Lumen run under (chased by Dexter) is just about 300 yards northeast of the ranger station.

That small bridge crosses a shallow stream that joins the big lake (near the cabin) with a smaller lake to the north.

Dexter has filmed several times before at El Dorado Park.

In the 4th season, it's where they filmed the scenes of Dexter's car crash.
Later, in the same season, it's where Trinity's car breaks down for the last time.

In the first season, they filmed that Flamingo Park scene by the lake, and they shot an everglades scene, with an alligator, at the park's Nature Center.


However, when Lumen reaches the dirt road (where she flags down the car), the scene abruptly cuts to another location, a long way from Long Beach. That dirt road is located in rural Oxnard, CA, near where they filmed two other road scenes: the one with Boyd and the dead raccoon, and the scene where Dexter follows Boyd down a dirt road, to the swamp.


I haven't pinpointed the exact dirt road used in this scene (it might actually be the same one used for the "following Boyd" scene), but I assume it is one of the dirt roads branching off of E. Hueneme Road, somewhere between Hueneme Road and the Boyd's swamp.
The agricultural fields there tend to have rows of trees along the edges of those fields (probably planted to shelter the crops from strong winds), and this looks very much like one of them.

Here is an aerial photo of the park, with the bridge and the ranger station labeled. And here is a map link.

And here's an aerial map of the general Oxnard area where they filmed the road scenes and the swamp.

Q. How the heck did you figure out where it was?

A.  In previous seasons, I've usually had to hunt down the locations after viewing the episodes, using clues from the various scenes.  By the 5th season, though, I'd developed a small group of fans, spies & tipsters who kept an eye out for Dexter filming in their neighborhoods, and would let me know in advance when something was about to film there.

Between those reports, and my own personal reconnaissance around town, by the time the first episode aired, I already knew most (but not all) of the filming locations, and only needed to watch the episodes and match up the scenes with the correct locations.

This group of helpful fans includes Kerry, Rick, Joel, Geoff, Ellen, Julie, Susan, Jeff, and others. My thanks to all of them.

This particular info came from Kerry, a fan who lives near the park. (She's the same tipster who got the photos of the roll-over accident last year at the park, and who managed to land an extra role on the show for the arcade scene with Trinity & Dex).

I had learned that they would be filming at the park, and alerted Kerry early on, so she kept an eye out for any action there. Once things got underway, she sent me photos of the ranger station, and the astroturfed path, as well as photos from nearby shoots at a liquor store (where Quinn talks to Jonah) and a residential home (seen in the dead skunk scene). Later, she also nabbed the shots of the bridge. (Thanks, Kerry!)