Explore the Death Valley canyon where Luke Skywalker met the sandpeople
Death Valley, California. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. But one enterprising Star Wars fan found more than just womp rats on a trip to Death Valley: He found and photographed the canyon where Luke Skywalker has an unfortunate encounter with some sandpeople before being rescued by Obi-Wan Kenobi.
The photos of Desolation Canyon shown here are lined up side-by-side with stills from the original film, verifying the locations are the same. While most of the Tattooine scenes were filmed in Tunisia, the planet's rockier locales were a bit closer to home. According to starwarslocations.com, the site that hosts these photos, Death Valley is littered with shooting locations from the original film.
The site even includes GPS coordinates, in case die hard Star Wars fans want to re-enact the film's desert scenes in the spots where they actually happened. To make things easier on the film crews, most of the locations are close to roads and easily accessible. If you do make the trip, though, be careful. The Jundland Wastes are not to be traveled lightly.