In my opinion, you don’t need any convincing, but if you were on the fence about hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, then I think these photos are just the push you need! Overall, hiking the Inca Trail with Alpaca Expeditions was one of my favorite experiences to date. A lot of people asked me why or warned me about not going in rainy season and although yes, it rained, it also allowed for these gorgeously lush views and even RAINBOWS! So as long as you have rain gear, I couldn’t recommend going in rainy season more. Also, just because it’s rainy season doesn’t mean it rains nonstop. The first views of the Inca Trail were SO gorgeous and we had perfect weather the first day.
Ok, now for those gorgeous 20 photos of the Inca Trail. I hope you enjoy these as much as I do! As if the excitement of starting your 4 day journey isn’t enough, these are the views you have when you first cross over the Amazon River.
I loved hiking up the first peak and looking down over where we had just come from. 
Here are some of the first ruins you will see on the Inca Trail.
Here is a picture of our first lunch. Fresh trout from the river and all the rice and veggies you’d ever need, but their homemade guacamole was always my favorite!
The wildflowers along the Inca Trail are absolutely stunning.
I literally couldn’t stop taking pictures of this first peak we saw, the colors were so beautiful. I kept feeling like I was on the set of Jurassic Park. I kept trying to get a good picture, and although they were beautiful, they didn’t do it justice. Then we got to our first campsite and it was our view, so of course I just died😳.
Our family after hiking up TWO mountains together on the second day. They call this part of the Inca Trail-Dead Women’s Pass.
More gorgeous wildflowers
When we first arrived here, it was cloudy and we couldn’t see a thing. After a history lesson on the area, the clouds started to lift and we were left with this incredible view! 
One of my favorite pictures of Jake from the Inca Trail. I love the peaks and waterfalls in the background. 
It had been down pouring leading up to the previous picture and we had one last peak to climb before descending to our campsite the second night. We climbed that peak and were greeted with this view.
I’m never complaining about an overcast day again knowing this can come from it!
The full moon right above a ruin before we got to our campsite the second night. 
One of our favorite ruins. Jake counted 50 levels and gave up there because it was so huge. They had these “floating” stone steps to help you get down. You can see them if you zoom in on the left side of this picture. To think, the Inca were way ahead of their time, 900 years ago, installing floating shelves! 
Here I am looking over the river before heading to our last campsite.
On our last night it had just stopped raining and we looked out our dinner tent and saw a little rainbow starting to show on the side of the mountain. A few minutes later it looked like this! Even the porters were going crazy taking pictures. Apparently the rainbow is very sacred for the Inca, it brings good luck and fertility. 
Ok, I’ve said this a few times now but this was actually my favorite ruin we saw on the Inca Trail. Maybe even more than Machu Picchu. Obviously, it can’t compare when it comes to size but we actually learned there is so much more underneath the trees surround this ruin. They believe only 50% has been discovered so far! Isn’t that crazy?! It’s called Winaywayna and it’s named after the orchid that grows all around it. It means “forever young.” I think I loved this more than Machu Picchu because our group had it all to ourselves at sunset. 
Of course a selfie with a llama is going to convince you to hike the Inca Trail right? 
You’ve all seen a version of this photo a million times, but I had to share mine! Machu Picchu is pretty damn amazing. 
Here is a less common view you’ll see of Machu Picchu, and it is the view from Huayana Picchu Mountain. You have to reserve far in advanced to climb up this after visiting Machu Picchu. They only give out a select amount of tickets to do so. We got to Machu Picchu and were like why did we pay extra to climb another mountain after hiking 26 miles? BUT IT WAS SO WORTH IT. 
I hope these pictures helped convince you to start looking into hiking the Inca Trail! To start researching with the best company click the link Alpaca Expeditions. Here is one last gorgeous photo I snapped when we were leaving Machu Picchu.
Have you been to Machu Picchu? How did you get there? To read more of my Peru blog posts click, Here! 
