Taroko National Park

After our fun day in Hualien, we spent the next day with my dad’s colleague, who lives in Hualien and knows the area very well. She took us to Taroko National Park (and drove the entire way since the roads have lots of twists and turns and I get carsick very easily).

The morning was a little wet but it didn’t deter us from exploring the park. Here’s a photo I took of the park from the visitors center:

We hiked a bit and found ourselves walking up the stairs to see a resort inside the park. The stairs seemed never-ending and while we were climbing the stairs, I saw a sign to be careful of random insects and snaked (gross!):

After walking around the visitor’s center and watching a movie about the aboriginals that used to inhabit the park, we drove along the Yanzikou (Swallow Grotto) Trail and stopped a few times to take photos:

The area is known as Swallow’s grotto because the holes are where the swallows lay eggs and rest:

The small holes in the marble are caused by the river and erosion from the water. There aren’t a lot of guard rails along the walking trails and it can get quite dangerous. I asked my dad if there were a lot of suicides in the area and he said no, simply because by the time you get up there, you’re enjoying the scenery so much that you decide not to kill yourself (good reasoning, I wonder if it’s true). The view from where we were hiking:

Me and my dad:

We hiked for quite some time and managed to see the Eternal Spring Shrine, we walked across a suspension footbridge, and waterfalls:

It was a fun day and quite a lot of exercise – we even went and hiked to the Water Sheet Cave and to get there, we had to walk through dark tunnels (a few of them) before we got to the cave. It was scary walking through complete darkness but a fun experience. Most people go with a tour group because it’s difficult to drive around the area, but if you don’t want to do a tour, you can hire a taxi driver to take you to the national park and show you around.