Jared Lee - Photo Album - Edoras

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David took me along on a little family excursion for quite a treat -- climbing Mount Sunday, the real-life site of Edoras from "The Lord of the Rings"!
December 11, 2004

01-MtSunday Mt Sunday, the site of Edoras, is the tiny pimple of a hill in the middle of the river-plain, nestled amongst the surrounding Southern Alps

02-MtSunday Mt Sunday is slightly more visible here ... it was really shocking to see just how tiny it is in comparison to the mountains behind it

03-Edoras Edoras ... Mt Sunday is an hour from the nearest town with electricity (there's a tiny hamlet comprised of a bunch of bachelor trailer homes that don't have electricity about twenty minutes away), with most of that distance coming on an unsealed (gravel) road

04-Cows Some of the cows from Erewhon Station, a large cattle and sheep ranch that encompasses Mt Sunday ... you might have noticed that Erewhon spells a striking resemblance to the word

05-MtSunday Mt Sunday appeared to grow in size as we approached it

06-River We had to walk across two rivers to get to Edoras from the little gravel road that goes to Erewhon Station

07-Family David Strijbis took me out for a visit to Edoras, along with his four kids, one of his good friends and that friend's daughter ... David and his two older sons Joel and Ryan are leading the way

08-Tussock-MtSunday Walking through the tussock to get to Mt Sunday ... by this point we're really starting to notice just how big Mt Sunday, that little pimple of a hill, really is

09-Tussock Tussock grass

10-FellowshipRideSite Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas & Gandalf caught their first glimpse of Edoras as they crested that rounded green hill a bit in the background, coming towards where I'm standing

11-FuneralMoundsSite On the side of Mt Sunday, site of the simbelmyne-carpeted burial mounds for the kings of Rohan

12-FuneralMoundsSite Funeral mounds site

13-RoadToEdoras The road leading up to Edoras ... it quite literally is the only path leading up the hill that is suitable for horses

14-SwampBelow Looking at the swamp below Edoras, through which Gandalf & Pippin rode as they departed for Minas Tirith

15-PlainsBelow The plains below Edoras

16-Edoras Edoras ... the Golden Hall of Meduseld was at the very peak of that rocky mound

17-ViewFromMeduseld A view of the rest of Edoras from the site of the Golden Hall of Meduseld

18-Edoras Edoras

19-ViewFromMeduseld View from Meduseld, looking down the slope

20-Meduseld Meduseld

21-OnMountSunday On Mount Sunday

22-ViewFromEdoras View from Edoras

23-Rockpile A rockpile of some unknown significance ... there were no markers or indications that a film was ever filmed here on Mount Sunday, it had been returned completely to its pre-LOTR state

24-GoldenHallSite Everyone else standing where the Golden Hall once stood

25-StablesSite On that little rock outcrop on the right, at the edge of the hill, was where the Rohirrim stables once stood

26-Edoras Edoras

26a-Edoras Edoras/Mount Sunday

26b-Edoras Edoras

26c-Edoras Edoras

26d-Edoras View from Edoras

27-ViewFromEdoras View from Edoras/Mt Sunday

28-Jared-MeduseldSite Me by the surveying tower on the site of Meduseld

29-Jared-Edoras I climbed Edoras!

30-RoadToEdoras Looking back up the road to Edoras

31-GandalfPippinRidingSite Another view of the marsh through which Gandalf & Pippin rode at the start of their flight to Minas Tirith

32-RoadToEdoras Road to Edoras

33-RoadFromEdoras Road from Edoras

34-LookingDownhill Looking downhill

35-FuneralSite Funeral mounds site

36-River Crossing back over the river to get to the van

37-River River through Erewhon Station

38-JoelRyan-RiverCrossing Joel (in red) and Ryan (orange) Strijbis crossing the river, proudly wearing their Minnesota Timberwolves and Vikings caps that my parents got for them

39-InTheRiver Looking down the middle of the river ... the current was strong enough, and the rocks slippery enough, that I was a bit nervous about slipping and wrecking my camera in the water, but fortunately I kept my balance :-)

40-HowardEmmaJaredStrijbisKids Howard, Emma, me, and David's kids, starting with little Seth, Ryan, Leticia and Joel, with Edoras serving as a perfect backdrop ... Howard said that he and his family had been coming out to Mt Sunday for picnics about every other weekend for ten years or so, long before it ever became a world-famous (but still very remote and barely visited) LOTR landmark

41-MtSunday One last look at Mount Sunday, aka Edoras