Probably my favourite spot of this trip to Taiwan is Taroko Gorge. We reach Huelien(花蓮)on 28 May by Train (3hours ride from Taipei, NT445, S$22.25 one way, and took a public bus straight to Taroko National Park (45mins ride, NT105, S$5.25). We stayed at a small private run Taroko Hotel which cost us around S$75 per night.
The first walk we took was to Shakadang. It was about 15 minutes walk from our hotel, and the whole trail is about 4.5km, which took us about 2.5 hours. It was our first look at what Taroko has to offer, and we were in love with it the moment we step on the Shakadang trail
The walk started off a side of a bridge, decending about 2 storeys down from the highway. At the bottom, we followed the trail inwards towards rocks and running water. The path were half covered by semi caves as show in the picture here. It was raining slightly as we made our way inwards. We didn't encounter much people along our hike as I guess, most tourist wouldn't bother spending half their afternoon hiking in the rain! Very peaceful, very beautiful.
As we walked deeper, there were some visible path leading down towards the river. It was stable looking enough, and we made our way down slowly. The water at Shakadang river was simple beautiful! Crystal clear! We should have packed a picnic and just spend the whole afternoon there just sitting by the small waterfalls all around us!
Deeper and deeper, the rocks got higher, and we were walking further away from the riverbed. The water got rougher as it got nearer the source, a dam at the end of Shakadang trail. But some of the places where there were caves as shown here, the water lie peaceful, undisturbed, and totally mesmerizing in their saphire dark blue colours.
We managed to visit the Eternal Spring Shrine (長春祠) on our first day as well, before making our way back towards the hotel. In total, we walked more then 10km on our first day there, in about 4 hours!
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