ARID LANDSCAPE ADVENTURERS: Look, we don't want to tell you how to do your vacation, because your getaway is yours, it belongs to you, and anyone who butts in to wag various fingers probably won't have that much success in swaying you to one activity or another. But we will most fervently recommend this: Should you and your movie-mad pal drive to Death Valley National Park to ferret out exactly where the Jawa scene with R2-D2 took place in "Episode IV: A New Hope," best pull over to a diner in Lone Pine or Baker and determine that pointing into the distance and claiming you know for 100% sure it was filmed over there isn't the most reliable method. Same goes for your pal pointing and making claims. Same goes for anyone trying the vague pointing thing. Good? Yes.
FOR MANY FILM DEVOTEES, both from the "Star Wars" universe and other fandoms, have tooled around the expansive national park searching for locations, and yet many a visitor has been stumped over whether they found exactly the right spot. (Surely not you; we know your inner GPS is exemplary.) But it's not always easy, is basically what we're saying, to search for a very specific location, even in a place that isn't known as the largest U.S. national park this side of Alaska. So, how do you find where the Jawas ruled and Terrence Malick's "Tree of Life" was filmed and an episode of "The Twilight Zone" took place? Why you look at this...
VERY CLEAR FILMING MAP... from Furnace Creek Resort. So many flicks and television shows have used Death Valley's stark horizons and rugged ranges as inspiration that a pop culture buff could surely spend weeks trekking from spot to spot, building a whole blog, or at least impressive slide show, around the adventure. Westerns and sci-fi treats are plentiful on the list, but the national park hasn't belonged to those sorts of shoots, exclusively. Now, where do you find your stunning slice of Tatooine? Start here. And with a new "Star Wars" film inspiring fans to go location-looking, we can only imagine this map will come in all kinds of handy. Seriously, though: If everyone in the car refrains from vague pointing and "I think it's over there"-ing, there shall be so much more sightseeing you can all get done in a day. Best shake hands on it before venturing into this amazing lunar-like landscape.
