On February 17, 2024 you could find us at an absolutely stunning 19 km aquamarine river-cut marble canyon called Taroko Gorge in eastern Taiwan. A month and a half later, on April 3 a massive 7.2 earthquake hit the same region. This is not the first time this has happened to us, and we realize how lucky we were to see it when we did.

Though often referred to as the largest marble canyon in the world and nicknamed “The Marble Gorge” because of the large quantities of the stone in it, the rock is actually a unique combination of marble, granite and quartz micas, giving it a wide range of colors and textures. 

The park is truly a treasure chest of nature…ample hiking opportunities in pristine forests, dozens of swinging suspension bridges, temples that look like they fell out of Shangri-La, plunging waterfalls, including one that drapes like a curtain inside a cave, cheeky monkeys, and numerous roadside eye candy to appreciate. 

And while most people go on tour, or rent a car to do it, we of course…stumbled on a far more frugal way…good ‘ol public transportation. And we don’t meant the one day tourist shuttle bus pass…

The day we went, the gorge was surrounded by misty mountains and a fair amount of rain. The park reminded us a lot of Kootenay National Park in Alberta, Canada, although the roadway tunnels that cut through the side of the mountains were far more impressive.

Also more impressive was the Eternal Spring, or Changchun Shrine. It boasts a waterfall which traverses the middle of this Taiwanese shrine to honor the hundreds of workers killed while building the nearby highway. The serene environment is utterly out of Shangri-La. 

Pedestrians can walk along this roadside path on a 30-minute “trail” called the Yanzikou. It was a great way to check out the incredible tunnel work in addition to the gorge itself. All the tour group people were wearing helmets but since we had no way to get one, our strategy was more to just walk fast in places where it warned there could be loose rock. 🤣

Since the river is clearly not fed by glaciers on this tropical island, we were curious how the water got its blue green color. We learned the marble releases calcium carbonate into the stream, where it is constantly washed by the water passing by and sometimes even gives it an unusually aquamarine color. It must really be spectacular in the sun. Too bad we didn’t get any of that. 

Taroko Gorge is definitely a geological marvel, which fortunately you can’t swim or raft down. 

The pedestrian tunnels cut into the cliff side. It’s sad and easy to see how so many lost their lives in this project.

The Yanzikou Trail, or Swallow Grotto, is is named after the swallows that are often seen showing off their superb high-speed flying skills in the gorge. You can see the pockets they build their nests in along the cliff faces.

Unfortunately the trails we did were not the ones we originally aspired to do. We really wanted Zhuilu Old Road, which requires permits as they only allow 96 people per day. We got on the website a month prior one day after registration opened and they seemed to be sold out. But here, you can see what a tedious process it would have been.

We settled for the Baiyang Trail by getting off the Tianxing Recreation Area bus stop and walking 15 minutes west to the start of the trail. For the record, this looks nothing like any trail beginning we’ve ever seen. It commences with an astounding entrance tunnel of 380 meters, which feels far more cave-like than man-made.

The 4.2 km round trip trail will pass you through 7 more tunnels so it’s a very good idea to bring a flashlight.

You then get the opportunity to walk across a suspension bridge, for an up close look at Baiyang Falls.

The Baiyang Trail had some very unique water features.  

At the end of the trail, you arrive to the best part…the waterfall curtain. It is here that hikers gather to recompose themselves after a deluge, as well as rip off their single use plastic ponchos. There is even a sign that says if you leave your poncho behind, you will be punished. Geez. But, yes. You will get wet. And yes, it’s narrow, slippery and precarious. And yes, we forgot to bring our backpack cover. But this kind of natural occurrence is truly not something you see every day. 

Moving on, it was almost time for lunch so we headed back to the recreation area where these lurkers were hanging out by the 7/Eleven also ready to eat. It’s hard to resist that face.

Fortunately, to avoid thievery, the park has indoor spaces to eat your loot and the monkeys just gaze at you admiringly taking photos from the outside. Ha. Now who’s in the cages?! 

So how did we plan this day? As we had already learned, things in Taiwan were organized….to a point. For example, when we went to the Hualien bus station the day prior, the ticket representatives were adamant that the best (and only) way for tourists to go to Taroko Gorge on the bus was by buying a tourist day pass for ~$8/each.

While this gives you unlimited rides on the tourist shuttle (bus 310) it does not give you access to the 302 or 1133 public local buses. The tourist shuttles also only come about every hour, or less, so it’s not a good deal and very difficult to plan your day. We saw multiple people waiting when we just got on the next available bus. If you just pay as you go, with cash, you get far more flexibility and for us, it ended up being slightly cheaper. ($15 total.) Of course, this also depends on how much you get on and off the bus. 

One useful thing we did find at the bus station was this trail breakdown which included the trail names, lengths and times. Surprisingly this information was not available anywhere that we could find online.

Or maybe it was available, but certainly not in English. We started to get used to these kind of menus in Taiwan as well. We enjoyed this delicious vegetarian meal at the following squiggle: 青田の蔬食 😀

Even more importantly, we enjoyed it with the nomad friends we had tried to meet up with at the Lantern Festival! Meet American/Canadians Wendy, Ian and their teenage kids who have been traveling and worldschooling since 2020. They were the greatest family and we wish our time together hadn’t been so short. Until next time! 

In the meantime, it was time to head back to our crappy hostel, at an appropriately crappy hostel rate ($15/night for a private room.) 

The hostel was called “Good Man’s Hostel” which did not reward us with good sleep like a good man deserves, thanks to the single pane windows on a very busy street. We also felt it was a little unnecessary to head to the lobby four floors down to take a toot. Also, no nudity so, no boom boom in the room room. You must go to the lobby. Still don’t know if this sign was a joke or not, but based on other hostel “rules,” something tells us it wasn’t…. 🤣

Also, we learned, some things just don’t make a lot of sense in Taiwan…