sent from: DeKalb, Illinois, USA. destination: El Monte, California, USA

Based only on the information that the Ewok scenes on the forest moon Endor were filmed “near Crescent City” for Return of The Jedi, I had wanted to visit any and all Redwood forests in the area for as long as I can remember. I had assumed that they were in Jedediah State Park, the closest redwoods, but a quick internet search and a bit of common sense would suggest that they were unlikely to let a film production go into a protected forest and do the kinds of things a film production needs to do to get their work done. Aside from some plates for the speeder chase filmed further south, it seems most of the filming area is either unaccessible or has been logged. No matter – we drove into the park and hiked around the Stout Grove, an astonishing collection of redwoods, as the swollen Smith River rushed past us having washed away a lot of the trails. I used to imagine the small english trees were the massive redwoods to the small action figures; now I was standing full human sized dwarfed by the giant trunks, and I could picture the speeder bikes weaving in and out. No Ewoks, however.