We departed Lijiang well fed and rested, prepared for a nice long hike through Tiger Leaping Gorge. The scenery from Lijiang to the gorge was beautiful - snow-capped peaks set against the lush green farmland of the Naxi people.
Having backpacked in the Sierras and Northern California, I thought it would be a walk through the park - it was actually a bit more challenging than I anticipated, and would have been much more challenging if we did the entire length in 1 day! (we opted to cut it short by a few miles because it was getting dark).
Tiger Leaping Gorge is one of the world’s deepest gorges. Our hike was along an upper trail, and was pretty much the entire day - there were a few hours of climbing, then mostly up and down. Just the right amount of physical activity to be challenged but not exhausted. The views were beyond compare - to see from the river to the top of 18,000+ foot mountains surrounding us was stunning.
We spent the evening at Tina’s Guest House - an perfect place to spend the evening, a few thousand feet up, right in the gorge - and excellent food with a sweet back porch with rocking chairs. We spent the evening drinking beers, and Karsten found a guitar and strummed song after song as we tried to “name that tune”.
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