Journey to Tatooine

Photo courtesy of Phillip Browne

Death Valley National Park was a key location used to depict the planet Tatooine in two films of the original Star Wars trilogy: Star Wars (later subtitled A New Hope) and Return of the Jedi. Since I’ve been obsessed with these films (and the wildly popular action figure line they inspired) my entire life, I recently jumped at the chance to visit some of these locations first hand.

Lifelong Star Wars fan Tom Berges runs a website/Facebook group called IGREWUPSTARWARS, which features childhood photos of fellow fans (opening Christmas presents, wearing Halloween costumes, blowing out birthday candles, etc.). He also periodically leads tours through Death Valley Star Wars locations. 

“Sarlacc, our amazing local Star Wars group in Seattle, went to Death Valley in 2013, my first time,” he says. “Since then, I’ve been back three additional times leading my own tours, twice with the help of the legendary Gus Lopez, a well-known Seattle-based collector. I [now] host them whenever the time is right. Death Valley is such an amazing place; it’s hard not to fall in love with the area. That environment is so alien—the perfect place for an adventure.”

In early 2018, Berges announced on the IGREWUPSTARWARS Facebook page that he would be returning to Death Valley in March. The premise for “Journey to Tatooine 2018” was simple: If you can pay your own way and follow simple instructions, you’re welcome to join the party. The first few people who signed up secured seats in Berges’ rental van, while the rest of us booked our own rental cars.

Our group, which included 18 people from across the U.S. and Mexico, first met for dinner on a Thursday at Hofbrauhaus Las Vegas. One thing was readily apparent to me, and became increasingly obvious as I had the opportunity to spend time with these fellow Star Wars fans over the next few days: This experience was really more about being yourself and geeking out with fellow Star Wars nuts than walking where R2-D2 walked (or rolled).

This group represented the gamut of fandom. Chris Georgoulias traveled to Tunisia—another key location used in the first film—nearly 20 years ago and counts a Krayt dragon’s claw prop as part of his collection. Chris Rice is part of the R2 Builders Club, whose members build replica robots. And several of the travelers are members of the 501st Legion who construct screen-accurate replica costumes and “troop” at Star Wars-related events, as well as contribute to local communities through costumed charity work. Many of us attending the Journey to Tatooine really just wanted to take pictures of our action figures in the desert—and there were ample opportunities for that.

On Friday morning we departed from the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino toward the Exchange Club Motel in Beatty, Nev., which would serve as our home base as we navigated filming locations.

Our first location stop was the area around Artist’s Palette, a canyon featuring an array of bright colors. This is where we found two locations used for A New Hope: “Sandcrawler Station,” where we see the Jawas’ imposing desert vehicle in the background, and Artoo’s Arroyo, where footage shows R2-D2 rolling along in advance of his fateful encounter with the Jawas. Berges brought laminated reference cards featuring stills from the movies to help us visualize the scenes and line up our own shots.

After dinner at Denny’s, the group visited Rhyolite Ghost Town, a Gold Rush town that has been defunct for more than a century and now includes the remains of several buildings and several works of art that are part of the Goldwell Open Air Museum. Most notable is a collection of Ringwraith-esque ghosts (actually empty “flowing” robes made of fiberglass).

On Saturday we checked out a couple of A New Hope locations. First up, the Sand Dunes near Stovepipe Wells (excessive winds prohibited a visit on day one). This is where we see R2-D2 traveling alone in the desert shortly after separating from C-3PO (whose solo footage was mostly shot in Tunisia). Several of my colleagues got amazing toy photos at the dunes, notably Phillip Browne, who brought a fairly large collection of his original childhood action figures. We next visited Desolation Canyon, where Luke Skywalker first sees the Sandpeople and their Bantha creatures (played by an elephant wearing horns and shaggy hair).

On Saturday night we faced a rather gloomy prospect: a second-consecutive dinner at Denny’s (Beatty isn’t known as a mecca of gastronomy). Fortunately, our colleague Luis Villagomez had other ideas. He made arrangements for Gema’s, the Mexican restaurant across the street, to stay open late to accommodate our ridiculously large party. So we had a nice meal at a cozy local restaurant and talked some more about Star Wars (and The X-Files).

On Sunday, we visited our final locations, both from Return of the Jedi. At the beginning of the film, C-3PO and R2-D2 are seen walking toward the palace of Jabba the Hutt, and we visited this very spot in Twenty Mule Team Canyon. Nearby, we ventured off to one more site: a cave featured in a deleted scene first revealed at Star Wars Celebration V in Orlando. Berges promptly led us to an exterior overlook, where he and Villagomez recreated a production photo of C-3PO (actor Anthony Daniels) and a crew member shaking hands. The location of the cave itself, however, was then debated amongst a few members of the group. At this point, Berges told us he was involved in a nearly verbatim debate in this same location on the last tour, and he had no doubt the same debate would happen when he led his next tour through Death Valley. And I get the feeling he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“Meeting fans of Star Wars in person is always more fun than responding to posts online. The bond of friendship that is created for a few days in the field is like no other experience,” he says, noting that watching a first-time attendee’s face light up when they recognize a filming location is always a highlight for him. “Fans of the Star Wars universe are a community I’ve never experienced before. There’s so much passion—a passion most of us have held for most of our lives.”

Dusty and tired, but excited, our fellowship came to an end. Everyone said goodbye to friends new and old, and we went our separate ways. My wife and I spent the last evening of our vacation at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas and gorging at Beijing Noodle No. 9. But we left our hearts on Tatooine.