Tomb Raiders Hike, 2016/10/23
Photos from a short and lovely hike in the hills behind the Ming Tombs area.

We call this hike 'Tomb Raiders' because we hike over the mountains behind the Ming Tombs area to approach two of the closed tombs from the rear.
We started hiking from a village and continued up through a deep valley. A hill trail took us up out of the valley and on to a ridge trail and up to a look out point on a peak.
From the peak you can see just about all of the 13 Ming Tombs are in view, if it's a clear day. A view well worth the big climb!
After a short break at the top, we hiked down the Beijing side of the mountain towards two of the tombs, passing a small dam and reservoir on the way.

Getting a close up shot of one of the huge spiders that lurk in this valley

Heading further up into the valley

The trail getting slightly steeper as we get close to the top of the first hill

Ah, but it's not the top yet. We've got a bit more climbing to do after this hill, too.

Beautiful autumn colors

Small wild dates

Beijing Hikers red trail marker

Resting at the top, by an old trig marker

Enjoying a beautiful view of the Ming Tombs area

A very thorny date tree. There are a lot of these in the area, and they can give a nasty scratch

A few hikers barely visible in the colorful landscape

We made a short detour to take a look at a dam and small reservoir

A perfect autumn landscape - can you even believe this is Beijing!

We bumped into another group of hikers, coming to take in the sights

Picnic lunch by the reservoir

Hiking out to the end of the trail

We followed some farmer's trails to get closer to one of the tombs in the area

The tall walls of Deling, one of the 13 Ming Tombs.