Part IV: Taroko National Park

A Guide to Road Tripping in Taiwan's East Coast: Intro

Part I: Preliminaries and Advice

Part II: East Coast Highway (Highway 11)

Part III: East Rift Valley (Highway 9)

Part IV: Taroko National Park

Part V: The cross island Highway (Highways 8 and 14)

The Taroko National Park is a must see in Taiwan. 

I cannot recommend enough that you come early. We stayed in Hualien in Chateau de Chine Hotel, which was comfortable even though we had a breakfast buffet rush hour experience. 

We drove off Hualien early, around 7:30am and got to the park at around 8am. The park headquarters were closed, so if you come this early don't even bother.

The swallow grotto was our first stop (except the ones that we did just to take pictures). It is a fantastic sight, with water seeping through the cave cracks and a wonderful view of the gorge, with its color palette. We were lucky to be the only people there at that time.

We stopped in many bends on the road, but we took a bit of time to do the Lushui-Heliu trail.

Unfortunately, many key attractions are closed off because of heavy damage due to rock falling and typhoons. This was the case for the Baiyang Trail and the nine turns tunnel both of which we had on our lists of mandatory stops. 

 

Hopefully next time we come these will all be open. 

The park is well worth a stop in your visit to Taiwan.