Lucasfilm – Skywalker Ranch

November 28th, 2010 by justJENN

Last week I had the honor of visiting Skywalker Ranch! It’s every Star Wars fan’s dream to see inside Lucasfilm and you can tell by all my many, many Star Wars recipes, I’m a huge lifelong fan.

I was lucky enough to be invited by my friends to come up and have a look around. The Ranch is located in Marin County just north of San Francisco on a windy road with a very nondescript entrance, blink and you’d miss it. To say security here is HIGH would be putting it mildly. There are no pictures allowed, so I felt weird even taking pictures on the outside.

My first stop was Big Rock Ranch. It’s a large lovely craftsman style building with amazing detail work. Security here was even tighter here because this is where the animation department is located. It was nice to see Yoda holding court amongst the flowers.

With security so tight there wasn’t much to see, so it was onward to Skywalker Ranch. Once again, lllllong windy roads take you to a separate property leading you up to the Ranch. Car sick bags, yeah you might want to keep them handy.

The Ranch is a large two story plantation style building. As an architect I can appreciate George Lucas’ attention to detailing on his buildings. Much like the homage to Frank Lloyd Wright at Big Rock Ranch, this ‘home’ is lovely and feels like it was lifted right out of a movie.

George Lucas’ office is right there on the second floor. Can you see him waving to me from the window? I’m kidding but he was actually up there, just not waving to me. Still, that would be the funniest picture ever.

The things I saw were awesome but sadly, there is ABSOLUTELY no photography allowed. I was able to see the actual working AT-AT model from the movies as well as the original lightsabers used in every movie. I was in total awe.

I saw the original model prototype for the Sarlacc Pit, which honestly looked just like my Sarlacc Dip. Ok, maybe not but it was still fun to see.

Even more amazing were the artifacts from other Lucasfilm franchises, like props from Willow, the original Indiana Jones hat and whip that Harrison Ford used in the movie, but the thing that I couldn’t stop staring at was the original Holy Grail that was Indy’s treasure. I was floored.

There were other jaw dropping items from George Lucas’ personal collection that showcased his true love of movies and art. Like Charlie Chaplin’s original hat and cane, a true piece of cinematic history. Lining the walls of the downstairs were original Norman Rockwell paintings. The vast art collection nearly took precedence in my heart over the original working sculpture of Jabba the Hutt, it’s such a toss up!

In the distance of the above photo is Skywalker Sound. A fascinating fact about the Ranch is that most of the buildings are underground to preserve the natural landscape and you can see why, this place is beautiful. For a city girl like me, I have to say I was more fascinated by the colorful trees and wild turkeys that ran freely around the property.

At one point a deer wandered close by. These encounters reminded me that yes, there is such a thing as nature. After years of theme park design sometimes it’s hard to believe that all animals are animatronic. There’s also a beautiful lake on the property called, wait for it…Lake Ewok.

The Ranch is serene, a quiet oasis in the middle of a city. They have their own animals, their own vineyard, and grow their own vegetables and fruits. They even hold an on site farmer’s market in the spring! We ate lunch at the on site restaurant and they even sell their own Skywalker Ranch wine and olive oil.

No day is complete without a little shopping, ok A LOT of shopping.

It was such a nice day hanging out with friends and talking, I almost forgot that I was sitting right in the middle of the Lucasfilm empire.

I left some Yoda cookies behind and as we made the turn down the drive I said goodbye to my friends and goodbye to the gorgeous landscape of Skywalker Ranch. Goodbye non-animatronic sheep, until we meet again.

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