Military veterans, aviation enthusiasts and photographers gather at the top of 'Star Wars Canyon' in Death Valley National Park. They’re there for a glimpse of the all-metal birds that randomly streak across the sky — and the military pilots that fly them.
Photographers train their cameras on an F-18 fighter jet from Lemoore Naval Air Station, Calif., diving into Rainbow Canyon. Air Force and Navy fighter jets train in Rainbow Canyon, known to many as “Star Wars Canyon,” near the western edge of Death Valley National Park.
The canyon — more than 5 miles long and up to 5,000 feet wide — is about a three-hour drive northeast of Los Angeles, off State Route 190. On paper, it’s known as Rainbow Canyon because of its gray, orange and red strata. The U.S. Air Force refers to it as the “Jedi Transition,” but almost everyone else refers to it as “Star Wars Canyon.”
“It’s pure, raw excitement,” she said. “It’s power. ... those pilots are skilled and they’ve got courage.” For Campbell, each pass is different from the next. In addition to fighter jets, she’s observed helicopters flying in the same space, and once she watched a C-17, a fat military cargo plane with four engines, drop into the canyon like a Slinky and then — as one spectator described it — “saunter” above the desert floor.Richard, 71, and Candy Campbell, 68, of Pacific Grove, Calif.
Larry Grace, a former Air Force veteran and president of the International Society for Aviation Photographysaid the Mach Loop in the United Kingdom and “Star Wars Canyon” in Death Valley National Park are two of the most publicized plane spotting areas in the world. His wife was sporting a denim shirt with the picture of an F-15, a suggestion, perhaps, of a shared enthusiasm.
Others suggest that the pilots who fly into the canyon feel as if they’re dropping into the trench of the Empire’s Death Star, avoiding fire from laser canons — just like Luke in “A New Hope.”But the nickname was not a hot topic among the plane spotters — the European aviation photographers, military brats, veterans and the Campbells — stationed along the canyon rim on a breezy March day. Their focus was elsewhere.
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