If not Cirith Ungol, what is the way to 🌋Mordor?

[Nameless Thing]

Everybody gets upset when they hear that Frodo went to Cirith Ungol. But what other options did he have? He couldn't go through the Gate, and any path going to Mordor was heavily guarded.

 

[Alcuin]

The published maps indicate that there might have been a pass over the Ephel Dúath (Mountains of Shadow) into Mordor at the head of the Poros River, the border of South Ithilien and South Gondor; however, there is no road or any indication of a fortress there. There is no mention of any of Sauron’s forces coming from any pass at the head of the Poros in Return of the King, either, although “absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.”

There is also an old map that shows a pass into southern Mordor at the head of the Harnen River, the border of South Gondor and Harad, called the Nargil Pass. The existence of the Nargil Pass makes perfect sense: it allowed easy transit between Umbar, the old Númenórean fortress-port, and Mordor, and also allowed faster access to Khand, an ally of Mordor south and east of the mountains. I think I recall that there was some indication of a fortress there, but the markings did not make it into the published map.

Some of the oldest maps (published in History of Middle-earth) indicate that there might have been a difficult pass over the Ered Lithui on the north end of the south-pointing spur on which Barad-dûr was built, and another halfway between the spur and the eastern end of the Ered Lithui; but as with the other presumed passes, there is no indication of either of these in the published maps.

And of course all of eastern Mordor was open to Rhûn and Khand.

In any event, none of these would have been in the least useful to Frodo.

───◊───

(added much later…)

To the intent of your question, Nameless Thing, Frodo really had no other viable options. As it was, he only just got through, or rather Sam did, and that “mainly by good fortune, as it is called.”

Faramir was too young to know about the peril of Shelob; Gandalf knew and was both worried and perplexed; Denethor (and Imrahil, too, likely) knew, and after Faramir fell under the Black Breath, fell himself into suicidal despair.

Had the Witch-king and garrison of Minas Morgul maintained their normal vigilance, the Ring would have been captured in the valley of Imlad Morgul; had the garrison of Cirith Ungol done its duty, they’d have captured it; had the patrol from Minas Morgul adhered to protocol and not rebelled, they’d have prevented its escape; had Shelob not been foiled, she’d have killed both Frodo and Sam, and the garrison of Cirith Ungol found it.

“[G]ood fortune, as it is called.”