Songluo Lake, which lies at 1250 meters above sea level, is often cloaked in mist and is surrounded by mountains and thick forest. It is actually in the Wulai District of New Taipei City but the trailhead (and most of the out-and-back trail) is in Yilan. It is possible to camp in the lake basin when the water level is low or around the edge of the lake when it is full. It's a popular trip but it's not exactly easy. The trail is notorious for being wet and muddy and the weather near the lake equally notorious for being unpredictable. The trail starts out relatively easy but gets steeper, rockier and more interesting as it gains elevation. Hikers pass through deep forest hung with ferns and beard moss and pass the stumps of huge, old trees. This post details how to do the trip using public transportation which is doable but requires some extra effort and planning.
Distance/duration: Day 1: 11 km/ 7 hours 54 minutes
Day 2: 6 km/ 4.5 hours
Total: 17 km / about 12 hours
On day 1 I walked from the Yulan bus stop to the trailhead and then to the lake. Day 2 I walked just to the trailhead and got a ride down with some other hikers.
More details as well as a map can be found here on my ramblr account.
I only recorded a track for Day 1. My phone got wet and I could not charge it so I turned it off to save power. Day 2, of course, is the same as Day 1, only in reverse.
Trail Overview:
Songluo Lake is known for its capricious nature. The weather is often unstable and it seems it rains often. Most photos of the lake show a huge, green clearing in the mountains with little to no water and sometimes populated with what looks like a tent city. But when I went, the lake was brimming with water and even though I went on a Saturday, there were only a few people there.
The majority of people drive to the trailhead but I don't have a car and I am stubborn. I was determined to show this trip could be done using public transportation. The trail to the lake itself is officially only 5.4 km but its more like six by the time you walk to the other side of the lake.
Taking the bus meant that my inbound trip was 2 hours and about 5 km longer than it would have been if I had driven. Quite a few people also do this trip with companies that set up tents for them and cook for them but I carried all of my own gear and food.
My walk started in the village of Yulan in the Datun District of Yilan and climbed to the trailhead mostly on roads but also on a short-cut trail that passed through the Yulan Tea Garden. It took 2 hours to get to the trail head. The road walk is steep. The trail starts out relatively easy but after passing the clearing known as the Faucet Camp it gets markedly steeper and harder. The upper part of the trail is steep, rocky and can be slippery. The trail was muddy --with oozing muck and standing water. It was never boring.
As the trail climbs higher the forest changes and the trees get bigger. When I was there the forest was shrouded in mist. There were tall trees and huge old-growth stumps looming in the fog. Songluo in Chinese means "tree moss" or "beard moss" and you can see it growing on trees along the upper parts of the trail. On the road walk and the trail I saw several troops of monkeys and saw and heard quite a few Reeves Muntjac deer.
I
only saw 4 other hikers on the trail (one other solo hiker and a group
of three). This surprised me because I expected to have more company. At the lake there was a largish group with
a guide/cook. I estimate there were about ten of them but I'm not sure.
After I passed through their campsite I didn't see them much.
Route finding is very easy and the trail is well-marked with yellow triangles. When I got to the lake I had to walk around to the far side where there were camping spots. My total elevation gain from Yulan to the lake was 1,320 meters.
You can refill water at the Faucet Camp (there is a faucet) and when I was there I got water from the lake. When the water level is low and the water more stagnant, most people walk to the nearby Nanshi River to get water which is about 500 meters from the lake. I boiled the water before drinking it and it was fine.
I found this trip to be tough but I did it the hard way. It would definitely be easier if you drove. The first day of my trip it rained all day and I got soaked. However, once I got to camp and changed into dry clothes, I spent a very pleasant evening in my tent dry and warm.
Songluo Lake is also known as the "Lake-of-the-17-Year-Old-Maid" because of the
unpredictability of it lifting it's foggy veils to display its charms. I
guess 17 year old maidens are thought to be fickle. It seems to me
like the sort of poetic comparison most likely dreamed up by lonely male
hikers.
What to bring:
I won't write an exhaustive list but I took all the things needed for a night of camping in the mountains. Food, a stove, sleep system, tent, a light...Dry clothes in a dry bag are a must. Warm clothes-- especially in winter. A water filter might be a good idea but mine is broken. I just boiled the water.
Most Taiwanese hikers wear gumboots on this trail but I have tried them before and don't like them. I wore hiking boots and packed an extra pair of waterproof trail runners/hiking shoes for in camp.
I used an offline map and GPS for navigation. There is no internet access at the lake.
Permit
You need a police permit for Songluo Lake. It is easy to get online at this website: Mountain Entry Application System
- You can apply from 30 days to 5 days before the trip.
- The site has an English option
- It is easy to fill out. Just choose Songlou Lake from the list of destinations, choose a map, and fill out a brief hiking plan.
- You will get an email confirming your submission and another once the permit is approved.
- You can print it out 5 days before your trip.
I have used this site many times and never had a problem but this time when I first applied I kept getting an error message. If that happens just try again later. I was frustrated at first but I tried it again later or the next day (I forget which) and it worked fine. Transportation and logistics:
After
work on a Friday evening I took a bus from the Taipei Bus Station (behind Taipei Main Station, in Q Square mall) to Luodong which took about an hour. There is a big bus station in Luodong not far from the train station. I stayed
the night in a cheap hotel near the station.
In the morning I took bus 1798 at 5:20 am. It took about 40 minutes to get to the Yulan bus stop 玉蘭站.The fare is just a normal city bus fare. You can swipe your Easycard.
On the way back the bus departs its point of origin (Zhinao) at 13:40. So passing Yulan sometime after 13:40. My plan was to start early on day 2 and get to the bus stop by 13:40 just to be on the safe side. But to be honest, I wasn't too worried about getting back. It is usually easy as a solo hiker in Taiwan to hitchhike back to population centers. As it turned out, I got a ride back to Luodong with some other hikers I met on the trail.
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The Trip
After work on a Friday evening I went home, finished packing and went to Taipei Bus Station to take a bus to Luodong. Unfortunately, the buses were crowded and I didn't get a seat on a bus until 10:30 pm. By the time I checked into my room, and did some shopping for important supplies (potato chips, whiskey) and got to bed it was already 1 am.
I got up around 4 so I only had three hours of sleep. I motivated myself by looking forward to how well I would sleep in my tent that night. Actually, I felt pretty rested when I headed out to the convenience store for coffee at 4 am.
At the bus station the bus came right on time. I was the only one on the bus.
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| Bus 1798 to Yulan bus stop |
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| empty 5:20 am bus |
When I got off at Yulan it was still a little dark. It was raining but it was only light rain. I set off right away.
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| Yulan bus stop at 6 am. |
I walked back in the direction the bus had just come from and turned left and uphill on a road.
I took out my hiking umbrella as I walked. The road climbed and there were some views of the community and plain below.
When the road turned sharply right I continued straight and bearing right followed a small road. On the map it looked like a trail, so I was surprised that it was paved.
It wasn't long till this road joined up with the trail to Yulan Tea Farm. There was a sign for the tea farm pointing left and just a few meters to the left steps led up the hill.
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| left here, not straight |
The tea farm was at the top of the stairs. No one was around so early in the morning.
I passed through and at the road turned left and continued uphill. The road was steep and to keep a steady pace I started counting, restarting every time I got to 100 steps. After about 400 steps my mind wandered and I gave up.
There was one intersection where I almost went the wrong way. A smaller road continues straight ahead but the road to the trailhead makes a hairpin turn to the right. A green sign with an arrow with the characters ben jue 本 覺 points in that direction.
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| Keep to the right here |
From here it was 1.4 km more to the trailhead on a twisting road. Near the trailhead I passed a small parking area with space for about 8 cars. A guy was standing at the open rear of his vehicle and I asked him if he was going up. He said he would go up soon. I wouldn't see him again until later when we arrived at the lake at about the same time.
The last stretch of road before getting to the trail was picturesque and made me excited for the walk ahead.
The trailhead was unassuming. There was a small entrance with a sign next to it and there was no English signage. There was the first yellow triangle signifying the beginning of the trail. I stopped and had a snack. It was still raining but it was just a fine mist and under the trees I couldn't even really feel it.
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| Songluo Lake trailhead |
The first half of the trail to the Faucet Camp was basically like a typical Taiwan mid-level mountain hiking trail. Narrow but not too narrow. It wasn't too steep or hard but there were some wide, wet and muddy places. I was still able to hike with my umbrella because the trail was wide enough and I did not need to use my hands.
It seemed like I got to the Faucet Camp in no time and I was thinking the hike was going to be a breeze but that was before I encountered the second half of the route. When I first heard the name of the Faucet Camp my first thought was that it was perhaps named after some western explorer named Fawcett. But no it's called that because there is a faucet. It is a muddy clearing but a natural place for a rest and there are benches on one side. A fork here leads to 977 meter, Nanquantoumushan.
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| Mr. Faucet, I presume. |
While I was taking a break and eating some cookies, three hikers, two men and one woman, arrived and they also stopped. Later I would get to know them better and we would be neighbors for the night. We chatted a little. They asked if I drove and when I told them I took the bus, they said they had an extra seat and could give me a ride the next day. Not wanting to accept right away, I just said thank you and that I would see what the situation was the next day. Xie Xie. Yao kan qingkuang.I left before them and said I would see them later. The trail seemed steeper and harder almost right away. There was more climbing and I put my umbrella away and used my hiking pole. At first I was feeling energetic after a snack and excited about the change in the trail. But as time went on I started to feel pretty tired. It may have had something to do with only sleeping for three hours.
The trail climbed steadily but there were some descents, too.
It started raining much harder and I stopped in a clearing for a while to put on my rain coat and wait, hoping the rain would lessen. While I was there, the group of three passed me. The rain didn't stop so I started off again. In fact the rain would not stop or lessen until later that evening.
As the trail climbed it got really rocky and slippery but also really beautiful. The mist settled over the mountain.
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| An ingenious contrivance for crossing a slippery rock slope |
As I got close to the lake, it was really slow going and I was feeling exhausted. I kept checking the distance to my destination with GPS, then looking again thinking surely I must be almost there, only to find out I had only gone a few hundred meters.
Finally, I arrived just behind the group of three. And as we were looking at the lake the solo hiker I had talked to in the parking lot in the morning arrived and passed us.
I had expected there would be water in the lake but was actually surprised at how full it was. We could see a white pavilion set up on the far side of the lake and we all headed in that direction following a trail through the wet grass, sometimes slipping and sliding in mud right next to the edge of the lake.
We passed through the camp of a group that was already there. Their guide came out and showed us a place further on where we could all camp. He was a very friendly older guy, at least 70 years old --the kind of guy who looks like he is at home in the mountains. Those guys stay in the camps for days at a time, cooking for hiking groups.  |
| Checking out our campsite for the night |
I asked him where was a good place to get water. He showed me a path that went to the lake and with a sweeping gesture toward the lake and a grin shouted, "Is it enough!?" Guo bu guo!?
I was wet and tired and hungry and it was still raining. But there was no reason to just stand around in the rain, so I started setting up my tent and the other 4 hikers did the same. The solo hiker set up on one side of me, my tent was in the middle and the other three hikers set up a three person tent on the other side. Taiwanese people are so easy to get along with and so accommodating. We were all good neighbors.
I got some water in my tent setting up in the rain but not too much and once I inflated my air mattress I was above the floor and dry. My clothes were soaked and it felt so good to change into dry clothes. I ate a bag of potato chips, took the muddy trail to the lake to get water and boiled some drinking water. It was so wet that the air itself felt wet. When the water from my fingers got on my lighter it wouldn't spark to light my stove. I always pack an extra so I took another one out of my dry bag and was very careful about not touching it with wet fingers after that.
Despite being hungry earlier, when I cooked a rice meal, I did not feel hungry and couldn't get it all down. I lay in the tent sipping Jim Beam and slightly muddy lake water and it was bliss. My neighbors were so close that I could occasionally chat with them without leaving my tent or by just leaning my torso out the side door. I discovered that drinking whiskey and watching the rain run down the outside of a tent is just about as entertaining as watching TV.
I was really tired after not sleeping much the night before but I tried not to sleep too early. I listened to a couple of podcasts. I must have dozed off during them because I don't remember much about them. One was about the "enshittification" of the Internet but that is about all that I remember. I got up once in the dark to boil more drinking water. By that time the rain had stopped but with the low cloud cover it was pitch black. No moon. No stars. Eventually I slept and did not wake again until about 5:30 when I heard the solo hiker behind me stirring. I had planned to get up around 5 anyway and it was getting light so I got up, too. I walked into the woods to pee and discovered that up the hill there was a tarp shelter where hiking groups stored camping supplies in sealed, plastic barrels.
As the sun came up there were just a few tufts of clouds clinging to the hills and the sky was clear. It was going to be a good day. I was really lazy and slow in the morning. I made coffee and fried an egg and ate that with some bread and cheese. Then a drank some more coffee. If I wanted to take the bus back I should have probably left by 7 am but the three hikers offered me a ride again and I told them okay, so there was no hurry. We all took pictures by the lake.
I change back into my wet clothes from the day before to save my dry clothes which was not as unpleasant as I expected. One of my neighbors was doing the same and he called out to his two friends joking about how great it felt to put on wet clothes. Chuan shide yifu hao shuang! I started hiking before the others. They described their car to me and we agreed to meet at the parking lot later. I had partially charged my phone the night before but a since it had gotten wet, a message came up on the screen saying liquid was detected and the charger cable got very hot. So in the morning I turned it off to save power, just put it in my bag and did not take many pictures once I was on the trail.
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| Farewell to the lake |
The descent was pretty uneventful and definitely easier than on the way up but until I got to the faucet camp I still had to watch almost every step on the slippery trail. It took 4.5 hours to reach the parking lot. I started at 8:30 and got there at 1:00.
I had time to change into dry clothes before my new friends arrived. They gave me a ride to the Luodong bus station. I went to a convenience store first and had a beer and a microwaved double cheese burger. At the station I only had to wait about 10 minutes for a bus back to Taipei.
Further Reading: Songluo Lake: A Hike to See Beams of Sunlight Chasing Mist over the Dreamy Water in Taiwan
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Map and GPS coordinates:
Yulan bus stop: 24.665141, 121.59338, Google maps link
Songluo Lake trailhead/parking lot: 24.675729. 121.573233, Google maps link
Songluo Lake: 24.692958, 121.534578, Google maps link
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