Geek Nation Tours Expanding LA2Vegas Tour with “Valley of Fire” Day Trip to Kirk’s Death Site

GeekNationTours
Geek Nation Tours has been delighting traveling nerds on their Trek-themed tour from Hollywood, through a plethora of Trek filming locations in the California desert, and culminating in Las Vegas just in time for the annual Creation Convention held every August. Larry “Dr. Trek” Nemecek, the noted Star Trek guru, consultant, interviewer, producer and author of the Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion and Star Trek: Stellar Cartography, will be there as always to guide fans through the tour and impart his encyclopedic knowledge of all things Trek (both in front of and behind the scenes). This year, Vegas-bound fans unable to join in on the full tour can get a taste of the adventure by booking a one-day tour to the site of Captain James T. Kirk’s heroic death on Veridian III (Star Trek Generations), which is located in the majestic Valley of Fire State Park 55 miles northeast of Las Vegas. The trip is taking bookings now but is selling out fast with only 7 of the 12 seats still up for grabs.

Exploring Trek Sites: Hollywood to Vegas With Larry Nemecek
Geek Nation’s full tour takes you along with Larry Nemecek as you make the pilgrimage to filming sites of The Original Series, The Next Generation and their movies, as well as Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise. Some sites are instantly familiar, while others are obscure — but all are iconic and ready for you to revisit, right on location. The journey will take Trekkies from Hollywood and surrounding Los Angeles up to Vasquez Rocks and onward to the Valley of Fire. This year, the tour will also focus on two momentous 20th Anniversaries: 20 years since the finale of The Next Generation and “All Good Things” and the 20th anniversary of “Generations” and the death of James T. Kirk.

For info and to book the full LA2Vegas tour, see the tour profile. The tour runs from July 26th to August 4th and includes all sights along the way plus accommodation in Vegas and a ticket to the largest Star Trek convention in the world. Geek Nation Tours even has spousal options for any non-Trekkie significant others.

Valley of Fire Day Trip to Kirk’s Death Site
Fans can jump in for the “Veridian III Kirk Memorial Tour” day trip, which doubles as the last pre-con tour stop for those on the full LA2Vegas tour. Michael Westmore, Star Trek makeup designer and Generations filming witness, will be joining the tour for the Valley of Fire commentary, work permitting. As with the rest of the LA2Vegas tour, there will be chances for photo ops in the most iconic places from the Star Trek connection — and all of them are also a scenic wonder or historic and cultural landmark in their own right.


The majestic Valley of Fire is worth a visit

Those on the full “LA2Vegas Trek Film Site Tour with Larry Nemecek” are already bound for the “Veridian III” combat zone in their itinerary, which continues through the storied Creation Las Vegas convention. But this allows other fans who are already arrived early in Vegas to hop on the seven-hour day trip to see the iconic Kirk death site—and at the same time get a sense of what the full tour is like.

Aside from the film site, fans can also see and pose on the actual bridge on which Kirk died, which was donated to the park after filming and is now par of a permanent trail.

“So many Vegas-bound Trek fans are coming a day or two early to soak up the local color. I can’t think of a better way to see some new ‘hues and shades’ than to come out with the group and Mike Westmore, hopefully, to pose in uniform on that other famous Kirk ‘bridge,'” says Larry Nemecek.

Beyond the Trek connection, The Valley of Fire is worth seeing in an of itself. The park derives its name from red sandstone formations, formed from great shifting sand dunes during the age of dinosaurs, 150 million years ago. Complex uplifting and faulting of the region, followed by extensive erosion, have created the present landscape. It is Nevada’s oldest and largest state park, dedicated in 1935. Ancient trees and early man are represented throughout the park by areas of petrified wood and 3,000 year-old Indian petroglyphs. Popular activities include camping, hiking, picnicking and photography.

Geek Nation is taking bookings now for the newly added one-day trip to the Valley of Fire, but space is limited. Tickets will run you $175, which gets you a full day (8am – 3pm) on Veridian III. There are only a total of 12 spots on the tour, and 5 are already sold, so you’d better book soon if you hope to get one of the remaining 7.

 




26 Comments
oldest
newest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Been there, it’s a beautiful place…

Vasquez Rocks is well worth a visit too, though the Gorns are hard to spot..

Hopefully, his grave has not been disturbed.

Also, I wouldn’t pose on any crappy Trek bridges. They have a really BAD safety record. (Generations, Nemesis, Second Chances)

btw — Thanks Kayla for showin’ some love to us geeks who still come to this site for Trek news

Isn’t Orci being selected as director news?

Sadly, this seems more Creation Con “advert” related.

Though I would encourage people to get out to see our national parks for themselves, not because of …

NERDdom and GEEKdom. Criminey, I try to “own” the terms, honestly, but I see the logos and wigs and stuff and think, “people think we are all idiots.”

Kirk needs to be resurrected and star in the new Trek movie! Give us a proper Trek movie with William Shatner again!

That is indeed a laughable-looking logo design for these tours… ;)

And what’s all this nonsense about Kirk being dead?…it’s only a location from an ‘alternate’ universe movie I tells ya…so it’s only an ‘alternate’ universe ‘doppleganger’ of Kirk that fell off that bridge…and not the one from the actual ‘prime’ universe TOS show and movies…

…the ‘real’ Kirk remained fine long after the events of the ‘Undiscovered Country’ finished! ;)

(still, it’s interesting to know that silly bridge is still around that great location)

I hate slow news days also…on a brighter note Godzilla was a lot more boring then I thought it would be.

Trekscribbler (aka Ed) said…
2nd warning:
No fighting, name calling, taunting or flame wars. There is no place for fighting and flaming others on these message boards. Disagreeing with other Community members is acceptable and understood, but actively fighting and/or flaming will not be tolerated. Topics that are designed to start a flame war (defined as abrasive and/or offensive argument that serves no purpose but to make people mad) or posts made that are discourteous and/or hostile to other Community members or the discussion at hand will be treated as Spam and deleted without warning. If someone acts in a hostile manner to you or to others, DO NOT engage a person or persons who is fighting. Contact staff or a volunteer moderator and let them handle the issue. What is considered fighting or flaming is up to the discretion of staff and volunteer moderators. A person or persons found to repeatedly fight or flame others may be banned from these forums at the discretion of the staff.
Please stop spamming folks to speak with you on Facebook. Instead, I encourage you to use Trekspace’s private messaging system to explain yourself to these people, as it would appear that your activity may be suspicious.

At 2:55pm on April 22, 2014, Trekscribbler (aka Ed) said…
From the rules:
– These forums are for TrekSpace, Star Trek and other science fiction related topic discussions. The topics and subjects discussed here should focus around Star Trek in general and other related topics. These forums are not for discussing topics such as politics, sex or adult topics, religion, etc. Topics or discussions on these topics will be closed at the discretion of staff and volunteer moderators. A person or persons found to discuss such matters may be banned from these forums at the discretion of the staff.

i did not do any of it

#8. sherry – May 17, 2014

I think you zigged when you should have zagged. This forum is for trekmovie and not trekspace.

#8 – This is Trekmovie. We like to discuss everything…

I’m guessing from Sherry’s post that Trekspace is no different to here when it comes to drama now and then!

#11. Cervantes – May 18, 2014

Possibly, but one thing I do know that one of those absent here responsible for more than his/her fair share of it is going gangbusters at trekcore.

Oh really? Poor Trekcore.

Why would anyone want to travel out to the middle of nowhere to simply visit the site of one of the world’s worst man-made disasters (Generations)?

Why would anyone want to travel out to the middle of nowhere to simply visit the site of one of the world’s worst man-made disasters (Generations)?

Pretty stupid.

oops, sorry.

No worries Harry, as your point was worth repeating….

#15. Harry Ballz – May 18, 2014

Well, it is to be hoped that anyone availing themselves of the Valley of Fire State Park for whatever reasons would drink in its natural beauty and realize why so many films (THE PROFESSINALS with some of its set still intact, CHERRY 2000, TOTAL RECALL, etc.) and not just that one filmed there.

Although, I have to confess if I was there, I’d probably sheepishly check out Television’s AIRWOLF hidden lair.

@18

Disinvited, checking out other things is fine.

It’s just silly to go there for a trainwreck like Generations.

Well, guys, so many people after the 2012 debut Trek Tour said “Why do you go to Vegas and NOT go out to Valley of Fire?” that we dropped Lone Pine in the mountains (COOL) and rejiggered to go hit Valley of Fire. Then realized it’d be a good day-trip with lunch and theo ther sites and all.

And as for Teras’ logo–some context: that’s his Trekified version of his main Geek Nation Tours logo, which you can see at the main site (where he also has military, historical, medieval, game con, anime con, etc) tours….. geeknationtours.com

Exxxxcept….it ain’t worth anything unless you actually hike to the *top* of the Silica Dome. It’s not something you want to do mid-day in it’s 100 degree August heat.. But to stand at the exact and quite familiar locations where so much happened is pretty cool. Plus, you can still see pegs in the rocks from where the scaffolding was mounted (if you know where to look) and you can find bits and pieces of other debris still lying around out there.

If you *do* want to see some of this stuff up close,, e-mail me and we can go out there before, during or after the conference. If the geeknationtour just brings you to the distant lookout point it’s really not worth it. Have to go to the top of the dome. Like I said, it’s a hike and a climb, and not for those with a modest fear of heights, but it is fun. No Trekker should skip.

Cherry 2000, nice, i remember that movie :) Indeed, these are cool locations;

Eric–we are going in the early AM—still hot, but yes it is a factor, and one everyone will be prepped & hydrated for. A bigger photo op will be the actual Kirk-killer bridge they donated to the park.

Early AM is best!! You know–as a resident of Vegas and regular attendee of the Trek convention (I’ve been following the show since 1970) I would be glad to offer my volunteer assistance to meet the group out there and lead an expedition to the top of the dome. It would take about 50 minutes–90 minutes (including cool visiting time) round-trip from the parking lot to the top. I’ll show you where all the awesome landmarks are.

It’s not an easy hike–twenty minutes down a desert road and then a 15 minute walk/scramble to the base of the dome. Being on the top is not easy for those who are dizzy of heights. But get there and you can stand on the location where Soran met the Nexus, where Picard and Kirk fought, where the bridges came crashing down and where the cast and crew battled bees (I’ve never seen bees out there, though). It’s as easily a trophy spot as the Vasquez Rocks.

I’ve included a website link below–some photos I have (I have many of the location) to whet everyone’s whistle. There’s a photo of me at the end, taken for some stuff I did with Cirque du Soleil a few years ago, climbing up out of Kirk’s drop-off spot.

Larry–e-mail me or otherwise let me know if you’re interested!

I’m glad to see Microsoft Bob finally got a new job. http://toastytech.com/guis/bob.html
I guess he is moving from one indignity to another. Up next, a gig in a chicken suit?

I can’t believe how dead Trek is at the moment. Old faves like Doctor Who, Star Wars & Planet of the Apes are thriving. I hope Paramount get their arses in gear for Trek’s 50th and give us something spectacular like the BBC did for Doctor Who and its fans, Star Trek deserves it.