The High Chaparral was created by David Dortort, who had previously created Bonanza for NBC, and he stepped back from the day-to-day running of Bonanza in spring 1967 to focus entirely on this new series.

The theme song was written and conducted by David Rose, who was also the composer for Bonanza and scored the show's two-hour pilot episode.

All exterior filming took place at the Old Tucson Studios near Tucson, Arizona, and in the nearby Saguaro National Park, with some later episodes shot in California and, in season three, in the Coronado National Forest south of Tucson.

Interior scenes were generally filmed at the NBC television studios in Burbank, California.

In the final season, Mark Slade's character Blue Boy was written out and replaced by Rudy Ramos as Wind, a mysterious half-Pawnee cowhand who served as a go-between for the ranchers and the Indians.

Actor Frank Silvera, who played Don Sebastian Montoya, died during production of the final season, and his character was replaced by his brother Don Domingo, played by Gilbert Roland.

The name of the ranch, 'The High Chaparral', is explained in the first episode as being coined by Anna-Lee Cannon after the chaparral bush, though botanically 'chaparral' properly refers to a coastal scrub plant community rather than the native flora of the high Sonoran Desert depicted in the series.

The fourth season featured new opening titles and a new arrangement of the show's popular theme music.