So over the 4th of July weekend, I had 4 days off and decided to venture south (I live in NW Oregon) and head to the California Redwoods. I've made several trips down there over the years as I absolutely love it. Obviously we all know that the Endor scenes were filmed in that area, but in all the trips I've made I never took the time to try to locate the filming location of the Speeder Bike chase. Well, this time I was determined to find it and see some of that iconic imagery from ROTJ.
After making it down that way and having to sleep in my truck as all of the hotels were sold out due to the holiday weekend (not very smart planning on my part, but I like to do things on a whim), my daughters and I arrived in the area where it was filmed. I ended up pulling off and asking a couple very helpful locals and was able to find the spot!
We arrived about 3:00 in the afternoon and it was sunny and about 65 degrees. Absolutely perfect weather. The grove sits right next to the river and there were several vehicles there, but they must have all been down by the river. My daughters and I had the entire trail to ourselves! We spent a little over an hour just walking around. I did get some screen grabs on my phone ahead of time (no cell reception) so I could try to match the locations. It looks very similar to what it did back in 1983 and I could darn near hear the Speeder Bikes screaming through the trees. It was incredible being transported into Endor for an hour and I tried my best to take it all in. I could have spent the rest of the evening there, but I don't think my kids would have appreciated that.
While I was there, I decided it would be neat to have a small memento to take home. The large tree across the trail (the one that Luke and Leia go under) has bark that is very rotten and virtually falling off in places. I grabbed a couple small pieces of bark to bring home. The two smaller trees that are crossed are still very solid, so I simply grabbed a small piece of moss off of one of them.
Unfortunately, the other scenes with actors, explosions, etc were filmed on private land that is not accessible to the public. Even if it was, it would be unrecognizable as that area was completely logged shortly after filming completed. It's a shame, but I'm glad us fans can still go and see where the Biker Scout Chase footage was shot.
Here are a couple pics of my NA's from this trip with some reference pics. The upper photos are screen grabs from ROTJ and the lower ones are pics I took last weekend. It was a lot of fun. I also had to do a quick little time lapse video recreating one moment from that iconic scene.
https://youtu.be/BbVQYj2MQbg
I could darn near hear the speeder bikes screaming through this grove of trees. Checked one off the 'ol SW bucket list.
Entrance to Endor
Reference screen cap from ROTJ
This is it!
Pano vision
My kids being goofy and laughing at 'ol Dad for being such a nerd. Once we started walking the trail and we started matching up reference photos, they thought it was pretty cool too.
Screen cap from ROTJ for reference
This is it!
Another pano
Selfie time
And I had to do this for fun!
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