The Most Beautiful Place

 For the past few weeks, my friend Katie and I have been stubbornly insisting that our respective hometowns were the most beautiful places in the world.  Earlier this week, we had to admit that there was someplace at least approaching the perfection of Pittsfield and Iola when we spent two days hiking through the Tiger Leaping Gorge in northern Yunnan.

 

 

Along with a bevy of international friends, we hiked along the top of the gorge for a grueling 8 hours.  Although we only met each other on the bus to the gorge, by the time we had climbed up to the top of the gorge, shedding layers of clothing and pounds of sweat, we had formed a brotherhood out of our struggle. 

Stopping for lunch with our new friends

I took about 300 hundred pictures during the two days we spent in the Tiger Leaping Gorge.  I will only share a few of them with you.  The pictures will be much better than any description I can give.

 

It has been so long since I have been able to run or be outside in the sun for any amount of time, and the pure exhaustion of walking all day in the sun, in such a beautiful place, was the best possible feeling. 
After a full day of hiking, we spent the night at a guesthouse in the gorge.

The view from a bathroom stall at the guesthouse

Although the first day's hike was beautiful and exhilarating, the second day was what really forced Katie and me to reconsider our insistence in our hometowns' unreachable beauty.  After a few easy hours, we reached the end of our hike along the top of the gorge, we decided to walk down to the river.  The path down was quite steep, and there was even a part where we had the choice between a 100 foot ladder and a "safe" path, which bypassed the ladder in a series of sharp switchbacks.  Katie and I, as well as our new friends Jenny and Alex, decided to climb down the "safe path," but we made up for our cowardice by climbing up the ladder on the way back.

Our group of international travelers spent an hour at the bottom of the gorge, mesmerized by the beauty of the river rushing past and resting our shaking muscles.  The climb back up was dauntingly steep, and we spent nearly as much time resting as we spent climbing.  Iola will always be my beautiful home, but it will be pretty hard to beat the Tiger Leaping Gorge for breathtaking scenery.