This was our second day at Taroko Gorge. We had seen all of
the sights we had wanted to see on our first day, so we planned to just do a
couple of hikes this day. The first hike was about 2.5 miles each way. Right at
the start of the hike we saw a bunch of wild monkeys in the trees. They were
kind of far away, but it was still fun seeing them. The hike started out going
right on the cliff’s edge, but then dropped down closer to the river bed and
went through the jungle. It was a really cool experience walking right through
the jungle and seeing the variety of plants and animals. I think the animal we
saw the most of was giant spiders. Their bodies were probably 4 or 5 inches
long and then their legs spread out so they were the size of an adult hand – or
maybe bigger. They had webs that were sometimes 10 feet wide and some of them
went right over the trail, just above head level. But spiders aside, it was all
really beautiful. We spent about 3 hours on this hike and then caught a bus to
our second hike.
This one was also right through the forest, but it followed
the cliff’s edge a little more closely. There were some scary parts on this one
with narrow trails and no hand rails – we held the children’s hands closely on
these parts. There were also a couple of cool tunnels on this trail and at the
end of it, it had a really long, really scary suspension bridge. This one
really looked like the ones in the movies. It wasn’t made out of vines or
anything like that, but it was really skinny, really long, and had several
hundred feet of drop underneath it. The only think it was missing was the
crocodiles snapping at the bottom. Christian and Ethan had no problem crossing.
Julia did it too, but she walked very carefully and was a little sad that we
had to go back over it to get back to the start of the trail. I had Asher on my
back in a carrier and I kept having images in my head that he would decide to
tilt in that to look down and then just plop out. Rebecca went across with
Elliott and Agnes. She got about 1/3 of the way and decided it was just too
dangerous for them (they really could have just slipped through the sides if
they fell) and so she took them back. We then had about 45 minutes to retrace
our steps and get back to the start of the trail to catch our bus. It was about
1.5 miles, which if it was flat would be no problem, but with the hiking and
cliffs and everything, I was worried we wouldn’t make it. We went as fast as we
could and made it drenched with sweat and 10 minutes to spare.
After that it
was just the long bus ride back to Hualien. We got seats this time and were
able to avoid any bathroom accidents. Back in Hualien we found the Vietnamese
place for Rebecca, but when we got to the crepe place it was closed again. It
is too bad because they kids really wanted to get that as their last treat for
leaving Hualien. Instead we got a few bowls of shaved ice (I forgot to get a
picture, but hopefully we will do it again and I can explain more about it
then), then the custard pastry things (also forgot to get a picture), and let
whoever wanted it have ramen noodles at home. Another really exhausting, but
amazing day.
The monkeys were just off in these trees at the start of the hike.
You can see the start of the trail carved into the mountain side.
Lots of trees and rocks for the kids to climb on throughout the jungle.
Right when I was about to take Agnes' picture, some other people came up and started snapping pictures of her. So she is kind of trying to hide into the very corner.
The end of the first hike, waiting for the bus.
The start of the second hike.
A very small suspension bridge.
You can see the drop off from where the kids were at on this trail. Lots of it didn't have handrails, so it was a little scary.
This was the long suspension bridge. It was scary even for me.
Here you can see it from a distance. Rebecca, Agnes, and Elliott are about 1/3 of the way on it in this picture.
Not the best picture, but I wanted to get something of the street where we stayed in Hualien.
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