there is. from the route I took from the hotel, there is a winding road up with walking paths as well (to shorten the distance) but it is a long ways up. if you're into hiking and want to make the trek up, all the power to you. Will take a couple of hours still if my memory is correct. But the bigger issue is the altitude. I lived my entire life at sea level. When I was in Peru, I stayed in Cuzco for a couple days, exploring various incan sites in the area before taking a train to go visit Machu Picchu. Breathing was INCREDIBLY difficult for me while I was there and I'm not in poor shape. Literally was winded walking down the street the first day. If you're not accustomed to living a mile or two in the air, you might have similar problems.

There is also a walking route to the town before machu pichu if you wanted to save money on the train there, would require a 20-30km trek or staying a night on the side somewhere and splitting the kms in half, it was probably the highlight of my trip