Baiyang Waterfalls Trail 白楊步道

First tunnel
Emerging
Paiyang Waterfall
白楊瀑布
Water curtain cave
水濂洞

The trail starts about a kilometer up the road from Tienhsiang (天祥). where a long straight narrow tunnel is carved into the cliff and through the mountain at the roadside. There are many tunnels along the two kilometer walk. At the end of the trail you come to the spectacular three stage Baiyang Waterfalls (白楊瀑布), before reaching the final Water Curtain Tunnel (水濂洞) - a dark tunnel which in addition to dumping cold water on travelers requires walking in the shin deep stream running through the tunnel. The trail offers fantastic examples of the geology and morphology of the marble gorge. The path is wide, flat and well-maintained, taking about one hour of walking each way.

Wenshan Hot Spring 文山溫泉

Wenshan Hot Springs is about three kilometers up from Tienhsiang. This natural spring is reached by a footpath that leads through a tunnel across a suspension bridge and down a steep flight of steps to the bottom of the gorge, where hot mineral water pours from cracks at the back of a shallow cave into a small pool beside the river. The pool was officially closed after a landslide in early 2005 but seems used again. The water is 46-48°C.

Fried rice at Dayuling
大禹嶺

Mt. Hohuan 合歡山

As we leave Tienhsiang and drive west up to the spine of the central mountains, the weather is socked in, allowing only glimpses of the vistas from the central cross island highway, but as we arrive at the peak of Mount Hohuan (合歡山) the skies open up to offer us stunning vistas.

Mount Hohuan (合歡山), located at the westernmost section of the Taroko Gorge National Park (太魯閣國家公園), is known as one of the few places to see snow. At 3,416 meters the summit is above the tree line. In winter temperatures dip well below freezing. Mount Hohuan sees a yearly average of 5,300 millimeters of rain. Clouds carrying moisture from the Liwu River (立霧溪) cutting through Taroko Gorge from the Pacific Ocean are blown westward toward Mount Hohuan. The mountain's lack of steep gradients forces these clouds to climb gradually in altitude and where they hold their moisture. The increase in humidity raises the possibility of snow during winter.

landslide repair

Driving back down towards the western planes we head for the hot springs resort town of Guguan (谷關).

Guguan 谷關