Rainbow mountain is located in Peruvian Andes mountain. The actual name of the mountain is Vinicunca but it is also called Rainbow mountain because of its colorful appearance. The colors are formed by sedimentary mineral layer exposed after years of erosion. Rainbow mountain is becoming a popular spot among travelers because of increase in buzz about the place in various social media sites. My visit to Rainbow mountain was completely worth it. The mountain was situated at an altitude of 5200m. That’s almost same height as base camp of Mt Everest. Rainbow mountain hike is organized from Cusco. I was really amazed by the photos I saw in Instagram and wanted to visit the place. I booked my tour from RainbowMountainTravels.com and the cost of the tour was just USD 30. The tour includes transfer, breakfast and lunch. If you do this tour in any other country the tour will cost, you at least 200 USD. You will find lot of websites providing rainbow mountain tour at different prices. Please book your tour from Rainbowmountaintravels.com. They are the best tour company in town and the pricing is also very nice. The tour is offered every day. I would strongly recommend to visit Rainbow Mountain during the winter months because in summer season the weather is very unpredictable and it rains frequently. July, August and September is probably the best season to visit Rainbow Mountain .
Our guide picked us from our hostel at around 3 am. The tour company wanted us to visit the rainbow mountain as early as possible in order to avoid other group tours. Rainbow Mountain Travel is the best tour company because they also provide oxygen tank for the trip in case of emergency. It takes about 3 hours to reach the trail starting point for Rainbow mountain hike. It was freezing cold in the morning. I immediately got inside the minibus and the bus was packed with people. After around 1.5 hour of drive, we stopped at a small shop for breakfast. We got banana, oat meal, milk, eggs and bread for breakfast. You need to eat lot of carbohydrate during the breakfast because it will help you for the hike. Acclimatization is very critical if you are planning to visit Rainbow mountain. You will most probably take flight to Cusco from Lima which is located at very low altitude. Cusco is located at an altitude of 3400m. I will strongly recommend to spend two days in Cusco before going for the hike because this will help you to acclimatize with altitude. We met some local people selling souvenir near the shop. It was another 1.5 hours bus ride to the hike starting point for Rainbow Mountain. After driving along the main road for some time we finally took a detour. The road became very narrow and twisty. I have lot of respect for the driver who is driving along this trail on a daily basis. We reached at the base about 6 in the morning.
We had a short brief about the trail to the viewing point. Our guide told us to take horseback riding up to the rainbow mountain if you are not feeling well or not physically fit enough to do the hike. We were supposed to meet at the parking location at around 1 pm. It takes about 4 hours to reach the top of the Rainbow mountain and it takes about 2 hours to come down. So basically you have about 1 hour to spend at the mountain for photography. You don’t get extra time advantage even if you take horse because even horses struggle to walk fast in high altitude and cold weather. The horse can only cover about 75% of the trail on the flat terrain. The last 25% of the trail is very steep and you can’t ride the horse in this section.
If you don’t feel like hiking for 4 hours, then I would strongly recommend to take the horses. The cost for hiring horse for one way trip was 60 sol and the cos of hiring the horse for return trip was 100 sol. Around half of the people in our group took the assistance of the horse for hiking the trail. I had prepared myself before the trip by doing proper training and I was all set to experience high altitude hiking. We had to climb about 900 m in about 4 hours time then come back to the starting point. The weather was just perfect. The sky was completely clear with no trace of cloud. The trail was covered with thin layer of snow. Normal hiking shoe is good enough for hiking the trail. The entrance to park was not included in the trip and the cost of the entrance was 10 sol.
I formed a group with other travelers and we started walking slowly. Our group took first break after hiking for 15 minutes. I started to get doubt about completing the entire trail. Eventually the path to the viewing point flattens out and the altitude gain is very gradual up to the highest point of the mountain. You will feel lack of oxygen at this altitude. Energy bars and water will be very helpful during the hike. I saw some members of our group getting tired during the hike and asking for horses. So they had to go back to the starting point and took the horses because you can’t hire horses in the middle of the trail. I took just one break throughout the trail and I strongly recommend to don’t rush the hike and just take it slow and easy. Some local old people passed me and they were looking very comfortable in this trail. The scenery was epic and it is difficult to explain in words.
You could see some beautiful mountains situated around the trail. Mountain peaks around this region have an average height of around 6500 m. Finally, I reached near the 1st viewing point of the trail. It was steep 100m climb to the first viewing point. I felt very tired at this point and every step was very tough. Even the horses were struggling to climb this part of the trail. I looked around for my group and I couldn’t find anyone. It took me good 45 minutes to climb the last steepest section of the trail and at sea level I could have done it in 10 minutes. The total distance from the starting point to the viewing point was about 5 km. I took some good rest after reaching the first point of the hike and took some hot coca tea from the local vendor. I had the first view of the Rainbow Mountain from this point. I couldn’t believe what I saw. It looked as if it was photoshopped by nature.
I could see various shades of red, green, yellow and white color on the mountain. The red color was looking vibrant on the background of beautiful blue sky. This was not the end of the trail and I had to climb another 100m to reach the top of another mountain situated near Vinicunca. The height of the final viewing point was 5200m. No one is allowed to climb on top of Rainbow mountain because it will spoil the beauty of the mountain. Horses are not allowed to do this climb and you are on your own here. I didn’t feel very tired for this part of the hike and managed to reach the peak in a short period of time. I had around 45 minutes to enjoy the beautiful view of Rainbow mountain from the viewpoint. You can’t climb on the rainbow mountain but you can view the mountain from a viewpoint which is located on another mountain. Long time ago rainbow mountain was covered below thick layer of snow. The colorful mountain was discovered only in last 20 years because of the melting of snow caused by global warming. The weather was a cold and it was very windy. I came down from the highest viewing point. I took enough photos to fill my social media feeds for a month. The view of the beautiful Ausangate glacier mountain was epic from the viewing point. I completely forgot the strenuous 3 hours climb after looking at beautiful landscape.
I started my journey back to the parking location at around 11 am. It took me around 2 hours to reach our van. The trail was very crowded with lot of group tours. The viewing point could get really crowded during afternoon time. I felt very happy because I did the trail early morning. It was a decent downhill walk and the beautiful scenery of the mountains started to fade away. I will strongly recommend to bring proper hiking shoes for this trip. The weather is completely unpredictable at this mountain and it could also snow and rain in no time. I talked with my guide and he told me that we were very lucky to see the mountain in perfect condition.
I felt very bad for the horses because they were going up and down continuously. I finally met my tour group members towards the last part of the trail. Everyone was very happy after seeing the Rainbow Mountain. The hike was tough but everyone said it was completely worth it. Finally, we reached the parking lot and we saw herds of llama and Alpaca around the villages. I read some article that the hiking route could be completely ruined because the place is overcrowded with visitors. If the hiking trail is closed, then it will take about 2 days to reach Rainbow mountain from the other side. I would strongly recommend to visit the rainbow mountain as soon as you can.
Everyone was very tired inside the bus. I took some medicine for headache. The view was extremely beautiful from the bus ride. We could see herds of llamas and Alpaca around the region. The bus was completely silent and there was no noise. Everyone was very tired after the long trek. We caught up with some sleep during this time. We reached a small shop for lunch at around 2.30pm. There was rice, noodles, meat, vegetable salad and eggs for the lunch. We finished the lunch at around 3pm and started our return trip to Cusco. We reached Cusco at around 4.30pm. I went back to my hostel and slept as soon as I touched my bed. It was a tiring day trip and definitely not for everyone.
There is no toilet facility in the entire trail. You should carry a tissue roll with you during your trip. Toilets facilities are available at the restaurant where we had breakfast and lunch. If you are planning to do the hike on your own, please do some training before coming to Peru. You should be able to run 5 km in 30 minutes and you should be able to do 20km hiking trail in 5-6 hours’ time. Things are very different at high altitude and everyone react to high altitude in a different way. A very fit guy in our group was sick after the trip and he was having severe nose bleed and headache. The hike is 5* level and it is very challenging. If you are not comfortable doing hiking before then don’t do the hike and take the horseback ride to the viewing point. The guides were very helpful during the entire trip. They let you do the hike on your own pace. There was enough time to take some beautiful shot of the surroundings. I will strongly advice everyone to not do this trek in snowy conditions or if it is raining. Weather prediction doesn’t work for the high altitude region of the Andes.
Top Packing tips
- 3 liters of Water
- Energy Bars or Chocolate
- Sunscreen- The place is located at 5000m and the sunrays at this height can cause severe sunburn
- Rain Jacket- The weather is unpredictable at this location so I will recommend to carry Rain Jacket during the trip.
- Extra socks
- Cameras
- Tissue Roll
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