Conquering “the spine of dinosaur”

Let’s follow a backpacker’s journey to conquer “the spine of dinosaur”  on the top of Ta Xua mountain.

Imposing Ta Xua range creats a natural boundary between Yen Bai and Son La. To go to Ta Xua mountain range, you have to start from Ta Xua village belonging to Ban Cong commune, Tram Tau district, Yen Bai province). Ta Xua mountain range has three peaks. The highest peak of the mountain is where Vietnam flag tower is put at the height of 2,850 meters. At the second peak, there is still an old flag tower built in French colonial period. The third peak is in the middle and it is like a connecting line making the spine of dinosaur. There are two ways that help you to conquer “that spine”. One starts from Ta Xua village and another starts from Bac Yen. Leaving Ta Xua village, when the path to the top of Ta Xua become slippery and steep, you go to the forest edge. In your journey, you will see a cliff whose shape is similar to the head of a turtle. Many people take photos here. The turtle’s head stays at the height of 2,120 meters. It will be very exciting to meet an old turtle at that height. Ta Xua has a lot of flowers covering the whole forest and mountain-sides. It will take you two days of trekking in the forest to go to “the spine of dinosaur”. Therefore, you can camp under chestnuts with blooming white flowers overnight. Crossing the forest with burnt trees, you will meet steep cliffs. Coming here, because there is no path to go to two adjacent peaks, you have to cling to the cliffs to swing from this side to other side of mountain. When you come to the peak, you can see “the spine of dinosaur”. People call it like that because there is only a small path being as thin as a back of knife blade. Its height is around 2,500 meters.