Visit to Mordor

Nerd Alert! The following blog references Lord of The Rings.
A good number of scenes for Mordor were shot in Tongariro National Park. We could have
sported $250 per person to take a LOTR tour. Instead we used various reference sources
to try and piece together all the locations we could on our own for free. So take the
following assertions with a grain of salt since we have not seen the movies in a little
while. The pictures will be described in order. Also note that most scenes in the
movie have been bastardized quite a bit by CGI so original locations are often
hard to pick out. Of note, Mt Doom was made taller. The up-close shots
were not shot on the side of Mt Doom but on Mt Ruapehu next to it (easier access- a
4 star hotel is nearby).

(1) Believe it or not, to the left of the closest lodge is where a lot of up-close
Mordor shots were taken with the Hobbits.
(2) and (3) are inside this little valley which doubled as Emyn Muil and Mordor.
Behind this valley is a ridge and a huge canyon that looks kinda familiar so I'm
going to guess they may have used this (4) for the scenes where Frodo and Sam are climbing
into Mordor up that gnarly staircase.
(5) These Pinnacles are cool and probably aren't in the movie but if so, Nazgul would
be swooping through them.