Mystical Walks

How hiking in some places in nature can feel as spiritual as going to Church on Sunday

When I travel abroad, I like to include some scuba diving and a good hike or two into the mix. When I thought about the December challenge and the topic of spirituality, I wanted to write about places I have been to in the great outdoors hiking that felt spiritual to me. My thoughts were immediately drawn to a few hikes I had done over the years because of the special spiritual connection I had with each of them. These hikes were done in sacred places, and they made me feel it.

The Inca Trail to Machu Picchu

My first experience encountering a mystical walk was in 1998 when I went to Peru to hike the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. The four-day hike winds around the Andes Mountains and through ancient open-air temples on a stone road made hundreds of years ago by the Inca.

As each day of the hike progressed and we stopped with our guide at an Inca ruin, he would describe the Inca culture, Quechua language and experience. As I walked the ancient steps as so many Incas have walked before me, I felt as if I was in a spiritual place where God was all around me. Maybe it helped that the hike was in September and some of the misty rain and fog were falling all around me. Could I just be imagining things? Or maybe there was a divine presence of the Incas in the fog around me?

I wondered this for the rest of the hike until we all scrambled, our last morning, up to the sun gate entering Machu Picchu. I remember my first glimpse of that stunning ancient city carved into a mountain, thinking this city was built to revere the gods and the gods must be around its street corners and hiding in its ruined buildings.

The mysticism of the ancient city remained in place for our morning exploration. The hikers arrived to Machu Picchu much earlier in the day than the trains from Cusco enabling a few hours of rambling around the open-air museum encumbered by few people to bring you back to the present. You could roam around as you wished believing you had been transported back five hundred years and were one of the Inca yourself bringing offerings to the gods via the Inca Trail from Cusco or the Sacred Valley.

Uluru Hike

The second time I felt I had experienced a mystical walk was when I visited Uluru (Ayers Rock) in the Northern Territory, Australia in 2006. I went to Uluru on a three-day tour after spending two days in Alice Springs learning all about the aboriginal culture. When arriving at Uluru, our guides offered us the option to climb the mountain or just to take a hike around it. While in Alice Springs, I learned what an important spiritual site Uluru is to the Aboriginal people.

For the aboriginal people, the Anangu, are the traditional owners of Uluru. They consider Uluru to be a very sacred and spiritual place. It was created at the beginning of time called the Dreamtime when ancestral spirits were creating the landscapes, fauna, humans and animals all around them. In fact, the caves around the mountain are used by the Anangu to perform sacred rituals.

While climbing the mountain was officially banned in 2019, in 2005, it was still legal. However, I chose to respect the Anangu and just hike around the mountain instead with my travel buddy. I felt like if I had chosen to hike Uluru, it would be like scaling the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica. It would be disrespectful and offensive to the Anangu people.

I was so glad I made that decision because instead of having to huff and puff my way up the red mountain, I walked around the mountain and had the opportunity to explore the bottom of the mountain and caves with their beautiful local aboriginal petroglyph artwork.

While walking around the mountain, I could imagine the Anangu ancestral spirits coming out of the mountain as puffs of wind swirled around me creating mountains, rocks, trees, grass and kangaroo. The experience made me feel one with nature, and I really felt again as if there was a divine presence following my footsteps whispering to me to respect and protect this sacred place.

Hiking to the Tiger’s Nest Monastery

My last experience was in 2019 in Bhutan with friends. We had spent days traveling around the isolated Himalayan country visiting its many Buddhist temples and trying to uncover its secrets. On one of our last days, we took the hike towards the Tiger’s Nest Monastery. We didn’t have enough time to hike all the way up to the temple and back, but we did have enough time to hike up towards the temple to get those stunning views.

It is believed that at the sight of Tiger’s Nest Monastery, the second Buddha meditated for three months when he brought Buddhism to Bhutan. It is a significant holy and historical site for the Bhutanese people.

This was another example of a hike that I took slowly to enjoy the enthralling views. As I walked up and closer to the Monastery, I could imagine myself following a train of Bhutanese pilgrims making their slow journey up the Tiger’s Nest to pray to the Buddha.

These were three incredible hiking journeys that felt more like spiritual awakenings for me than just getting some needed exercise. I’ll never forget it whenever someone would ask my mother why she never went to church even though she was a devout Catholic. She would reply back “Why should I have to go to Church to pray when God is everywhere?”.

Having taken mystical walks like these makes me wholeheartedly agree with her!

Source:

Uluru’s Significance to Australian Indigenous Culture — WayOutback

Tiger’s Nest Monastery | Audley Travel UK

For other great spiritual adventures or information about Bhutan, please consider the following reads:

PY Lee — Medium experience traveling through Bhutan.

Jillian Amatt — Artistic Voyages — Medium time in lockdown in Morrocco and visiting an ancient Mosque.

I also recommend getting involved in this monthly challenge by reading Anne Bonfert — Medium monthly challenge for December’s article.