Taroko being a top destination for Taiwan, I could not help but have certain expectations. It delivered. We put off coming a day because of an unfavorable weather forecast. However, the first day was completely clear, our only clear day in Taiwan. The second was only a little bit cloudy.
Due to landslides a few of the trails were closed. Considering the park charges no admission, I really could not fault them for not fixing their trails faster. Given the special geological formation of the hills and unstable earth they are perched on, the park has an uphill battle. In fact, John and I each felt an earthquake while in Taroko (John: 3.6 same county, me: 3.7 same township). Since it is only 3.6, John cannot not really cross earthquake off his bucket list.
The first day we wanted to do a long hike. Since the Baiyang Waterfall Trail was completely closed, we picked the Wenshan-Lushui trail which required a permit. We started our day at the park police getting a permit which is a first for us. The trail turned out to be very technical. For the first three hours we were scrambling up and down rocky paths and rocks. We averaged one kilometer an hour, another first for us. After about one kilometer of relative flat, the last kilometer was straight down with a many steps. We wanted to hike, we had it. Our trail connected with the Lushui-Heliu trail which was very scenic along the rock face by the river.
The second day we took buses to see some of the highlights of the park. We found the new services by Taiwan Tourist Shuttle Bus really allowed us to be based inside the park and visit the different sites effectively. The park has some sites!
Sun-Ling on the Wenshan-Lushui Trail.
Taroko Gorge from Wenshan-Lushui Trail. That's our hotel at very bottom of the shot.
Resting on the 3rd suspension bridge of the day.
John on the Lushui Trail.
View of gorge from Eternal Spring Pavilion.
The clear blue waters of Shakadang Creek.
The road through Swallow Grotto.
Swallow Grotto.
Sun-Ling and John have been traveling the earth since 2008 while blogging, eating vegetarian and vegan, and riding public transportation. We love uphill day hikes, 20th-century architecture, Roman ruins, all bodies of water, local markets, shopping for groceries, aqueducts, miradors, trip planning, blablacar, and more.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Most Recent Post
Uzbekistan: Elsewhere in Tashkent
We spent some extra time in Tashkent, because we wanted to catch the Persian New Year, Nowruz , in Tashkent, known as Spring Equinox to the ...
Most Popular Posts of Last 30 Days
-
Last week we hauled our canoe and tent over to Merchants Millpond State Park and enjoyed some very fine camping and paddling. One day we p...
-
Polonnaruwa is an archeological site in north central Sri Lanka. Between the 11th and 13th century Polonnaruwa was the capital of the island...
-
The day before Easter we took the regional FSE train from Martina Franca to Bari, the 2nd largest city in southern Italy (after Naples) with...
-
Everything happened smoothly with our Galapagos trip. We had really good weather, two full days of sun and a couple of partly cloudy day in...
-
Dubai, the most populated city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), is an enigma for us. Dubai is now among the top 5 most visited cities in t...
-
Founded in the fourth century BCE, Anuradhapura was the first Sri Lankan capital. Today there are still a dozen giant stupas, some dating ba...
-
We were forewarned against Nazare, but Nazare turned out to be the only place in this part of Portugal that had any kind of Easter activity ...
No comments:
Post a Comment