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The Tiger Leaping Gorge is the best trek in China’s Northwest Yunnan province. The Tiger Leaping Gorge itself was carved by the waters of the Yangtze River flowing for millennia between two mountains: Jade Dragon Snow Mountain (5,596 meters) and Haba Xueshan (5,396 meters). Today the view from the top is a dizzying, vertigo-inducing panorama of snow-capped Himalayan mountain peaks towering above a narrow ribbon of white water and rapids plunging down steep slopes of boulders and sheer cliff faces. Overnight trekking the Tiger Leaping Gorge doesn’t involve a tent, a camp stove, or carrying much more than a couple liters of water and an extra jacket or layer of clothing in case a storm blows up. Friendly family-run teahouses and guesthouses have sprung up at regular intervals along the trail making a comfortable bed, a hot meal, and maybe even a cold beer available at the end of the day to the thousands and thousands of trekkers who traverse the slopes of the Tiger Leaping Gorge each year. My brother Preston and I hiked the Tiger Leaping Gorge trail in December 2009, and this gallery covers some of the highlights from the adventure.