Heading out of Kaohsiung early in the morning on a roadtrip can hardly be beat. We had a four day weekend for Moon Festival recently and while all of the Taiwanese families were settling in to their BBQ's and fam time we headed through the mountains of Taroko National Park to see the gorge first hand.
Slightly frightened by the fact that "The biggest storm to hit the world in 2013" was coming our way we decided to take our chances and head out anyways.
The drive up on Thursday was spectacular. Four of us hopped in a car and took off from a city just a little north. We stopped at the best of Europe in Taiwan-- Little Paris and Bavarian castles included. It is a quaint farm where the locals find it extremely amusing to stare a sheep for some time. While we didn't find them to be as exciting it was still wonderful to be in fresh mountain air. We were away from the smog, scooters and buildings...just like home :)
We reached the top of the mountain just before sunset. We were actually so chilly up there with the wind. It was probably close to 60 degrees but those days that is reason to wear a thick jacket!
The next day in Taroko we woke up early and headed out to see some of the hundreds of hikes they offer. We finished three trails through out the day, saw tons of waterfalls and plenty of chinese tourists.
We were tracking storm, Usagi, the entire trip. Late that evening we decided it would be best to call it quits in the morning and get home safe and sound before it got too bad. That night was one of the worst thunder and lighting storms I have ever heard. So scary! But, as we headed out at 6 the next morning we thought we had made it through the worst...come to find out, there was a tree that had fallen across the mountain pass during the night. We had to turn around and reroute through Taipei. Quite out of the way but we had a great time anyways!
Taroko is definitely a place I will visit again before I leave here! Just take a look at the photos and try to tell me you don't want to join!
Slightly frightened by the fact that "The biggest storm to hit the world in 2013" was coming our way we decided to take our chances and head out anyways.
The drive up on Thursday was spectacular. Four of us hopped in a car and took off from a city just a little north. We stopped at the best of Europe in Taiwan-- Little Paris and Bavarian castles included. It is a quaint farm where the locals find it extremely amusing to stare a sheep for some time. While we didn't find them to be as exciting it was still wonderful to be in fresh mountain air. We were away from the smog, scooters and buildings...just like home :)
We reached the top of the mountain just before sunset. We were actually so chilly up there with the wind. It was probably close to 60 degrees but those days that is reason to wear a thick jacket!
The next day in Taroko we woke up early and headed out to see some of the hundreds of hikes they offer. We finished three trails through out the day, saw tons of waterfalls and plenty of chinese tourists.
We were tracking storm, Usagi, the entire trip. Late that evening we decided it would be best to call it quits in the morning and get home safe and sound before it got too bad. That night was one of the worst thunder and lighting storms I have ever heard. So scary! But, as we headed out at 6 the next morning we thought we had made it through the worst...come to find out, there was a tree that had fallen across the mountain pass during the night. We had to turn around and reroute through Taipei. Quite out of the way but we had a great time anyways!
Taroko is definitely a place I will visit again before I leave here! Just take a look at the photos and try to tell me you don't want to join!
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