Middle Earth - Where is Back Again?
North Georgia (America) - Claire Byram
It's not where's middle earth, it's what's Middle earth.
Sure the major city of Atlanta is in northern Georgia, but so is natural beauties such as the Appalachian mountains and Amicalola Falls. (And even some unnatural ones like stone Mountain!) There's a vast number of beautiful mountains and many caves there where most of the country is English-speaking and independent.
Many of the Beautiful land forms and smaller details match up fairly accurately to what was described in the book. The Appalachian Mountains would sever the exact same purpose as the Misty Mountains, and plenty of forests like the ones described. (We do have a distinct lack of trolls though, thankfully.) Also, various evergreens such as the ones used to escape wolves are not uncommon there.
Forests
Ah, forests, forests, forests. A majorly overlooked detail. North Georgia has plenty of tree-filled forests like in the book, and assorted evergreens, the trees Thorin and co. climbed to escape the wolves in chapter six, are not uncommon here.
Blood Mountian
(I've been here before. Hard hike, but GOREGOUS view.) Blood Mountain is the highest peak in the Georgian section of the Appalachian Mountains. Also note that the Misty Mountains from the book are plural for a reason, as are the Appalachians. (And the name would be pretty fitting, no?)
Amicalola Falls
(Been here before. Almost every year, actually.) In chapter six (after everyone meets up again but before the wolves) it is mentioned that Bilbo drinks from a mountain stream. Unseen in this picture, the water continues flowing in a medium-sized stream along the trail. (actually probably more like the trail is along the stream.)
While other regions may have similar elements of The Hobbit, do they have them all in one place like North Georgia does? When you think of the journey so far, how far have they really gone? Across a whole continent like other areas might require? I think that the spacing for North Georgia lines up pretty well.
A lot of North Georgia's landforms match up with the ones from the Hobbit, as well as a few of the descriptions. This is why I believe that North Georgia should be Middle Earth.
Appalachian Mountains
Just... Wow...
Amicalola Falls
Those stairs are an all around major pain. Trust me. That picture doesn't even show half of it.
Appalachian trail
I could see that walking right out of a fairy tale.