11 Real Star Wars Locations You Must Visit

3. Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park (USA)

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Disney
Episode IV had desert, Episode V had ice, Episode VI had... Trees.

The forest moon of Endor is partly Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park in sunny California. 

Wait a minute. Jedediah sounds a lot like Jedi. Surely not...

George Lucas wanted "A jungly kind of place, the colour of life, a cradle of life environment" and so it came to pass that a place named after the first white man to have explored the forest would forever become home to those furry little creatures, Ewoks.

350 miles south near the now Skywalker Ranch is the Humboldt Redwood State Park where the famous speeder bike scenes were filmed in the Avenue of the Giants and Owen Cheatham Grove area while Ewoks carried their prisoners across Norman's Log.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJY0SDp20Dg

These places are open to visit if you happen to be out that way, just don't leave your hat lying around or you might find yourself on the receiving end of a pointy spear.

Sadly most of the acting shots were filmed in private land which is either non-accessible or has since been cut down. 

While The Force Awakens is set some 30 years after the final tumultuous events seen in Return of the Jedi that doesn't mean Endor won't get an honourable mention in the new film.

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