Montrose, Colorado is surrounded by mountains, lakes, rivers and valleys, making it a beautiful, serene place. Amazingly, I happen to live here. Colorado, I feel, is the epitome of the classic fantasy world, with stunning mountains, glens, forests, and all that good stuff. My view of this classic fantasy world is driven by the classic fantasy story, Lord of the Rings.

I love the Lord of the Rings books. When I saw the movies for the first time, they were pretty amazing. The scenery was wonderful, and I wanted to know where it was filmed. When I found out it was filmed in New Zealand, I thought “New Zealand! They must have spent tons of money and time traveling and filming in New Zealand. What a waste when they could have filmed in my backyard.” Now, I'm sure there are probably good reasons for why they went to film in New Zealand, but in my opinion, they made a mistake. This is where I think the Lord of the Rings should have filmed.

My dad and I took these photos in various places in Colorado, such as Mt. Hesperus, Mt. Sneffels, Mt. Abrams, Courthouse Mountain, Engineer Peak, Ice Lakes, Ouray, Telluride and Ridgeway. Just imagine it! What would the Lord of the Rings films look like if they were filmed in Colorado?

Jackson Duckworth is a member of the Youth Travel Blogging Mentorship Program

Photo courtesy and copyright Shane Duckworth