Places it needs to Travel (In United States)
Please take photos of these locations with the travel bug
Florida
Orlando, Florida – Disney World, Star Tours: The Adventure Continues
Star Tours debuted in 1987 at Disneyland and was the first major motion simulator at a theme park. Once the Prequels came along, Disney knew it had to update the ride and boy, oh boy, did they update it!
California
TCL Chinese Theatre, Los Angeles, CA – The Premiere Place of Star Wars
Formerly known as Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, this place is where select people first got to see a little known sci-fi movie called Star Wars (later to be known as A New Hope). As we can see, that little known film exploded into a worldwide phenomenon that has spawned thousands of toys, cosplay, blogs, and more movies. You, too, can stand on the place where the original stars of Star Wars first walked – and take in a movie at the same time – because the TCL Chinese Theater still operates as a working theater. C-3PO, Darth Vader, and R2-D2 all have imprints there from 1977; George Lucas and Steven Spielberg imprinted their hands in 1984, with Harrison Ford imprinting his hands and feet in 1992.
Letterman Digital Arts Center, San Francisco, CA – Yoda Statue and Lucasfilm Lobby
The Letterman Digital Arts Center is home to Lucasfilm Ltd., Industrial Light and Magic (ILM), the former LucasArts, and the George Lucas Educational Foundation. Who wouldn’t want to come into work every day if the scenery was that beautiful?
The greatest part is the statue and fountain of a life size Yoda located right outside Building B, which hosts Lucasfilm. All you have to do when driving up to the Security Guard is to tell him that you want to spend time with the Jedi Master.
10.
Death Valley National Park, CA – Planet Tatooine
Death Valley is the ultimate scavenger hunt for some of the most intense Star Wars fans. Before the internet, Star Wars fans used to scour Death Valley to find where shots from. Be quiet when going to Desolation Canyon as you might disturb the Bantha’s and their Tusken Raider owners; Artist’s Palette is also known as Artoo’s Arroyo, because it is here that Artoo rolls along without Threepio, unaware that he is about to be taken by Jawas; and finally, strolling to the top of the northern side of Coffin Peak, you arrive at Dante’s View – also known as the Mos Eisley Overlook, where you can survey Death Valley.
Sonoma County, California – Rancho Obi-Wan
Have you heard of Steve Sansweet? No? He is, in short, the world’s most avid collector of Star Wars memorabilia.So Steve created Rancho Obi-Wan, a 9,000 square foot museum that has the largest privately owned Star Wars collection ever on display. He started displaying his memorabilia in 1998, but founded Rancho Obi-Wan, Inc. in October of 2011 as a California nonprofit public benefit corporation to manage the collection. The greatest part of this experience would be that your tour is led by the owner himself, Mr. Steve Sansweet. The tours are generally two to three hours and you can ask Steve as many questions as you would like. You’ll even have the chance to play in the Star Wars arcade where can test your pinball skills. Make sure you check their calendar for availability as Steve only does tours on Mondays, Fridays, and Saturdays.
Redwood State Parks, California – Forest Moon of Endor
Any of the Redwood forests that you see in California will leave you with the feeling that you just stepped onto the moon of Endor (yes, the Return of the Jedi scenes take place on a moon, not a planet). My particular favorite is Muir Woods, only because it’s easily accessible by car from San Francisco and there are many walking trails where every moment feels like you could be about to outrun a scout trooper on their speeder bike.
The two locations still available to the public where Jedi was filmed are the Humboldt Redwoods State Park and Grizzly Creek Redwoods State Park. Both parks were used to film the background shots for the speeder bike chase sequences.
Washington DC
Washington, D.C., Washington National Cathedral – The Darth Vader Gargoyle
Now, why does a gorgeous cathedral from 1912 have a Darth Vader gargoyle? It turns out that the West towers were undergoing construction in the 1980’s and the Cathedral decided to have a competition for children to design the gargoyles. The third place winner, Christopher Rader, won the spot of the Northwest tower and Vader symbolized the futuristic representation of evil.