Hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu

As the sun rises and the mist settles, we make our way over Inti Punku, the Sun Gate Pass, and get our first glimpse of Machu Picchu, the Lost City of the Incas, nestled deep within the Andean mountain range in Peru.

The descent past ruins, terraces and sacrificial altars is the culmination of a four-day and three-night backpacking trip over three mountain passes and 26 miles.

Discovered by professor Hiram Bingham on July 24, 1911, after being hidden from the world for more than 400 years, the city is one of the few major Inca sites left untouched by Spanish conquistadors.

There are two ways you can get to Machu Picchu. You can backpack the Inca Trail, which is part of a 14,000-mile network of roads and trails built by the Incas stretching from Colombia to Argentina, or you can take a bus and train. My wife and I thought about it — walk or ride. We could hike on a 600-year-old trail, passing through native Peruvian villages, seeing ruins you would never see in a travel book, all while dodging llamas on the trail used to transport goods to market, or we could take a bus and train.

The answer was easy. We hiked. We thought that the opportunity to combine adventure, culture and history while hiking with people from other countries would turn out to be a trip of a lifetime. We were right.

To say we backpacked to Machu Picchu may be a bit of an exaggeration. Our group consisted of 34 — 13 hikers, 19 porters and two guides. The porters carried the food, tents and provisions. For a small price, they also carried our personal gear, meaning all that we had to do was carry a day pack with some snacks, a camera, rain gear and water. All meals were prepared by a gourmet chef.

To be a licensed guide in Peru you need to be a college graduate well versed in history, archaeology and fluent in English. One thing to note: The Peruvian government does not allow individual hikers on the Inca Trail. You have to be part of a licensed tour group. The hikers in our group were men and women from the United States, South Africa and Australia and ranged in age from 23 to 77, with the majority between 50 and 60.

We began our trek by crossing the Urubamba River at an elevation of 8,528 feet and climbed to our campsite at 12,303 feet. The hike, which took most of the day, was interspersed with history lessons from the guides, viewing Inca ruins and passing through small villages.