Taiwan Hiking Journal: April 2023

Sunday, April 30, 2023

Yuemei Cave Trail 月眉洞步道 and Xian Dong Hu Shan 仙洞湖山 Loop Hike

A cave, a peak and ruins in the forest. This walk in rural Keelung starts on a road, follows a trail to Yuemei Cave and then climbs to a small peak. After that it goes over the summit and back to the road by another route passing ruins of old buildings in woods brimming with butterflies and birds. Yuemei Cave is a large cave with water sprinkling from the top. There is a simple temple inside. At only 298 meters, Xian Dong Hu Shan is not high but has a great view.

Distance/Time: 5.7 km / 3 hours 22 mins. A map as well as more information can be found here

The Trail:

This is moderate hike. It is not strenuous and only of medium length but it is not for beginners. Some parts are very overgrown with brush and occasional thorns and littered with debris. I used my pole to probe ahead and kept an eye out for snakes. There were innumerable spiderwebs across the path that I tried to knock down with my hiking pole but I still ended up wiping webs off of my face. At one point I had to stop to flick dead bugs and spiders off my hat and clothes.

The trail is not hard to follow but sometimes indistinct so it's important to watch out for the flags. On the way to and from the summit it nears the edge of a cliff. Not dangerous but it's important to be aware of where you are and where you are stepping.

But despite all the above, I really enjoyed this one. If you push through the rougher sections there are rewards to be had.

The cave is a unique destination but the hike to the cave alone is short and by itself would not be a satisfying day out for me. At the peak and beyond there are good, open vistas. Once I got through the brushy sections there were really nice sections of forest. From beginning to end there were lots of insects, butterflies and birds. I could hear Taiwan barbets calling from the tree tops and several times saw groups of Formosan blue magpies. Toward the end I spotted a Reeves Muntjac deer. I saw several of what looked like pangolin burrows but alas no pangolins. I also saw one snake and a few toads.

My favorite parts of the walk were the first section leading beside a stream to the cave and the part on the far side of the peak. Here there were open sections of forest with huge butterflies slowly flying amidst the trees, and unexpectedly. ruins of old brick buildings and a bridge emerged from the forest. I have no idea what the purpose of these old structures was but would love to find out. My guess is there was mining or some other extractive industry going on here in the past.

I didn't see any other hikers the whole day.

Yuemei Cave 月眉洞 is a large cave surrounded by greenery with an altar and benches and chairs inside. A stream of water flows over the top into a round pool and then flows down hill feeding a stream. It is said that it was once called "Thieves Cave" because thieves hid here but who knows if it is true. It was renamed with it's current name which means "moon brow" or "moon eyebrow" because the shape of the cave is thought to resemble a moon or the curve of an eye.

Xian Dong Hu Shan 仙洞湖山 (298 m) has a clearing on top and a great view from the front. The path beyond it drops down to the road north of where the hike started and comes out near the Keeling Fusing Elementary School.

What to bring: Long pants and long sleeves to protect from brush and thorns are recommended. A hiking pole is very useful for knocking down spiderwebs and a hat with a wide brim helps keep them off the face and head. Sun protection is important on a hot day because the route is sometimes exposed.

Qidu is a bustling town with lots of restaurants, a market and shops for stocking up on provisions. There is a small store at the Yikeng bus stop.

Transportation: I took a train to Qidu Station and then bus 702 to Yikeng. Trains to Qidu are frequent so I did not even look at the schedule. At Taipei Main Station I only had to wait about 12 minutes and the train ride itself was 30 minutes.

To get to the 702 bus stop exit Qidu station on the Gaungming Road side. Outside the station turn left on Zizhi Street and walk until you come to Mingde First Road. The bus stop is across the road on the right.

I couldn't find much information about the bus schedule but when I got there I asked some other people if the 702 stopped there. They were also taking the 702 and going hiking and told me it was coming in a few minutes--which it did. It seems this bus only runs about once every hour.

On the bus I watched the digital display on the bus carefully for the upcoming stops because some of them go by quickly and the bus did not stop frequently. The ride took about 20 minutes and I got off at the Yikeng stop.

On the return trip, I asked at the convenience store what time the bus was coming. I would have had to wait for about an hour and 20 minutes, so instead, I used the Uber app to call a yellow cab which cost NT$285 and took 18 minutes to Qidu Station.

The hike:

In the past year I have visited a few caves including the San Min Bat Cave and Guanyin Cave in Taoyuan, Thousand People Cave in Chiayi which is the largest cave in Taiwan and White Horse General Cave in Shenkeng where resistance fighters used to hide during the Japanese occupation.

I read about Yuemei Cave in an article about caves in Taiwan by Richard Saunders and at about the same time saw a post on the Taiwan Trails and Tales blog about the cave. So I decided to visit as soon as I had an opportunity. I will list links to both posts at the end in a further reading section.

I visited on the next to last day in April and it was a sticky, hot day. At the train station in the morning the thermometer already read 32 C.

Across from the bus stop at Yikeng there was a store. I crossed and bought a cold soda. Two friendly men were chatting outside and they asked where I was going and pointed out the way.

The bus stop was next to a river and looking back the way from which I had just come on the bus was a bridge. So I walked back, turned left onto the bridge and started up a country lane.

I passed some farmhouses. At one house there was a huge dog lying in the shade of a car but as I passed it got up and came out barking, snarling with teeth bared. It seemed old and I never felt it was going to really go after me but I walked backwards away from it keeping my hiking pole between us. There was a smaller, black dog at the house next door but it just watched. When it felt I was sufficiently far away it peed into the grass at the side of the road and went back home.

Just after passing the house with the dog I came to a road with a red temple arch over it on the left.

I continued straight for about three more minutes and came to the Yuemei Cave trail on the left. It took 25 minutes to walk from the bus stop to here.

This started out as an old concrete track next to a stream. The water level was low but there were some deeper, clear pools. After the path crossed the stream, it became rough stone steps and then a narrow dirt track. In 15 minutes I arrived at the cave.

There was a structure built into the corner of the cave and a thin stream of water drizzling into a circular pool. The tung trees were in bloom and several tung blossom lie in and around the pool.

I had the cave to myself. There was an altar and several chairs. In the corner was a weathered shelf with Buddhist texts in Chinese. There were also quite a few empty plastic bottles and some disorderly pots and pans and boxes and plastic bags scattered around the bottom of the book shelf.

I availed myself of one of the chairs and had a snack and after a rest continued straight on the wide path heading out the other side of the cave. In just one or two minutes I came to the path leading up the hill toward Xian Dong Hu Shan.

It was about 35 minutes from here to the peak. To be honest this was not my favorite part of the hike. The vegetation was very dry and I often had to push through it. As I said before there were lots and lots of spiderwebs. There were a few thorns but they were mostly easily avoided. Despite being dense, it was not hard to follow.

There were some nice views into the valley below on the left with the white tung trees in bloom. I little less than half way up I passed a junction with a trail on the right. This trail leads back down to the road.

At the summit clearing there was a tattered red flag on a bamboo pole. It was a mostly clear day and the views were great but it was very hot in the open and so I did not stay too long.

I continued straight past the summit. At first the trail was still very overgrown. I considered turning back but I am glad I pushed on because once I got out of the open, weedy area on top the trail became wider and nice again. There were still a few messy areas but eventually the path was through humid woodland and very pleasant.

At one point the path opened to a really beautiful view of the surrounding green hills and later I came to a huge rock covered in vegetation.

Thirty minutes after leaving the peak and just three minutes after passing the big rock I came to a clear path on the left heading down toward the road.

The descent was gentle with just a few steep parts.

I was surprised to see the remains of an old brick building.

As I walked to the opening of the building and prepared to take a photo, I was looking up and was surprised by a snake.I cried out "Oh shit!" and then immediately started laughing at myself. The snake was gone so quickly that I didn't get a good look at it.

After the building the trail went on straight as an arrow for a little while and through a rutted path.

I came to a fork. The right fork led to another brick building and ended. I went back and took the left fork.

After this I came to three landmarks in quick succession: the remains of an old stone bridge (which the path passed under), a large empty pit, and a broken stone walkway over a stream.

Right after this a road materialized.

I turned right and soon this road joined another, next to a farm house. I joined the other road going in the same direction now beside the river (the Lu Liao Xi--which was the same one I had crossed in the beginning at the bus stop)

There were a few houses and garden plots. I came to a shelter house next to the stream and stopped to eat lunch.

When I came to a bridge, I crossed it to rejoin the main road and turned left on the road.

I passed the Keelung Fusing Elementary school and a few stores. There was a bus stop here but I wanted to walk a full circle so I kept going about ten more minutes to the Yikeng bus stop where I had started.

Yikeng bus stop 9:44 - Yuemei Cave Trailhead 10:08 - Yuemei Cave 10:22 - Xian Dong Hu Shan 11:14 - Rejoin the road 12:41 - Yikeng bus stop 13:10

Saturday, April 15, 2023

Wulai Long Loop: Laka Trail, Dadaoshan 大刀山 , Neidong Forest Road and the Neidong National Forest Recreation Area 內洞森林遊樂區

A peak, loads of gorgeous trails, mountain streams, and (at least) six big waterfalls. This long loop starts in Wulai, climbs to Dadaoshan via the Laka Trail, then joins up with the Neidong Forest Road. The road starts out wide but later turns into a gentle, narrow forest path that goes all the way to Doll Valley and the Neidong Forest Recreation Area. At the Neidong National Forest Recreation Area the route passes three huge waterfalls and then continues on the Xinxian Trail, where there are more falls. Lastly it follow the riverside road back to Wulai passing the giant Wulai Waterfall.

Neidong Forest Road

Distance/Time: 7 hours 18 mins/ 20 km. A map and more details can be found here

The Trail:

None of the trails on this hike are difficult but it's length bumps it up to the level of a hard hike. It's suitable for fit hikers that have the stamina to walk 20 kilometers. But there are some options for making it shorter (see below).

The roughest part is the Laka Trail which climbs steeply to Dadaoshan. This part could be really slippery when wet. But once Neidong Forest Road is reached, it is gentle and relatively level for the rest of the way--with just a few muddy places. This is the longest section of the hike and in my opinion the nicest. It starts out as a wide gravel road but after a traffic barrier it narrows to a path through the forest. At times it it seems jungle-like. Other times there is alpine-like coniferous forest. Other sections reminded me of temperate North American forest.

There are several places where landslides have covered the trail but they all look like old slides, there are established paths going over or around them and they are not hard to negotiate.

In the Neidong National Forest Recreation Area the walk is on well-groomed tourist trails or paved paths. The final part follows the road back to Wulai. There is a pedestrian area next to the road that is separated from the traffic by a barrier and on the day I was there the traffic was not heavy. There is one short tunnel on the road with no designated area for walkers.

The village of Wulai which lies sixteen kilometers from Xindian beside the Nanshi River is famous for Atayal aboriginal culture, food and hot springs. It's an easy trip to the countryside from Taipei and a great place for sightseeing, having lunch or shopping on the main tourist street. Wulai is usually crowded but as usual in Taiwan, once you leave the popular areas, you are unlikely to see many other people.

Dadaoshan 大刀山 (620m) has a flat summit and no view. The Laká trail starts near Wulai, climbs over the summit and then down the other side.

Neidong National Forest Recreation Area is a beautiful 1191 hectare park near Xinxian village. It's main attractions are its numerous waterfalls, bird life and wild mountain and river scenery. There are well maintained walking paths and it's a great place for families and casual hikers. Doll Valley is an area within the park on the Xinxian stream which feeds into the larger Nanshi River.

Xinxian Trail is a short, paved walking trail that follows the Nanshi River. It begins near the Xinxian Experimental Elementary school and ends where the Xinxian Suspension Bridge crosses the Nanshi River and meets the main road to Wulai. It passes a series of cascades formed by rivulets flowing down the hill into the river.

There are several waterfalls at the end of the walk:

Neidong Waterfall in Doll Valley consists of an upper and lower falls. Both are huge waterfalls of white water with ice-blue pools at the bottom.

Unfortunately you can't really get too close to them but they are still an impressive site from a distance. Access is cut off by a railing and signs prohibiting entry.

Wusha Creek Falls is a very tall, thin cataract of white water that lies on the other side of the Nanshi Xi where the Wusha Xi flows into it. There is a viewing platform that gives a clear view of the falls from across the river.

There are a series of cascades along the Xinxian trail but on the day I visited most were just a trickle. the exceptions were the last two. One, just called "waterfall" on my map, was a stream of water sliding and dripping over a huge, slick rock face. The last one, Shenglong Waterfall, is a nice medium sized falls and you can go right up to the base of it.

The final waterfall is the famous Wulai Waterfall which plunges 80 meters down a cliff. It's a huge tourist draw and even after seeing it many times it is still an impressive sight.

Options for a shorter walk:

At the top of Wulai Falls there is a theme park called Yun Hsien Resort. You could walk just the Laka Trail and Dadao Shan and then walk in the "back door" of the park. Then take the cable car that runs from the top of the falls down to the viewing platform below. Many hikers do this and I've done it a couple of times before. If you go in the park the back way you don't need to buy a ticket but you do need to pay for the cable car. I don't remember the cost. This walk is described in detail Richard Saunders' book Taipei Escapes 2.

At the end of the walk you could skip the Xinxian trail and the walk on the road and get a taxi back to Wulai instead. At the Neidong Forest Recreation Area parking lot it would not be hard to hail or call a taxi on a weekend.

What to bring:

I packed snacks, lunch and took two one liter bottles of water. I knew that if I ran out there would be places to get water on the trail. I always filter water from streams or treat it with iodine.

I recommend wearing long pants since some parts of the path are narrow.

There are plenty of shops in Wulai where its possible to buy snacks or drinks both before and after.

Transportation:

Bus 849 goes from Xindian MRT Station to Wulai and back. The buses come every 15 minutes and take about 30-40 minutes. They stop in the parking lot just before the village.

The hike:

I set out by myself on a day when the weather was predicted to be 15 - 25 degrees Celsius with zero percent chance of rain--very good hiking weather. I got off the bus at Wulai and started hiking at 8:30. I passed the Family Mart, crossed the bridge over the Tong Hou River at the main entrance to the village and immediately turned left onto route 9.

In about ten minutes, I passed an elementary school and then came to a fork with a clear sign saying the Laka Trail was 0.46 km along the right fork.

Left toward the Tonghou trail, right toward the Laka trail

I followed the right fork uphill and around a bend, took a short-cut up some steps, turned left on the road at the top and then came to the trail in the corner of a group of houses. This took less than ten minutes. There was a barking dog but he was chained and did not seem very aggressive.

There was a weathered map board just down the trail.

The trail started out relatively easy. It was very nice walking. I could hear the hum of activity from Wulai below.

After around 30 minutes I came to a fork. A hand lettered sign in Chinese pointed toward Dadao Shan. I took the right fork climbing up wooden and earth steps. Here it became more steep.

In 20 minutes I came to a T-intersection. A pair of hikers, a man and woman, where resting there.

We talked a bit and they told me there was a group of twenty some people ahead of me. I turned right again. I came to an opening where looking back I could see the Nanshi River and the parking lot from which I had started.

I could hear the large group ahead of me shouting and generally making lots of noise. I thought I would overtake them soon because larger groups tend to move more slowly and was anxious to get past them but they actually seemed to be moving pretty fast because I did not catch them and sometimes could not hear them at all.

I came to a narrow ridge ribbed with tree roots. Then after a short, steep climb reached the flat summit of Dadao Shan (620m), at 10:00 am, just an hour and a half after starting to hike.

Behind and to the left of the summit was a shed with a tower. I continued straight past the summit, with the the shed on my left.

Now the trail went downhill gradually. This was a really nice section of trail which I followed for another twenty minutes until I came to the Neidong Forest Road.

There was a white car parked at the side of the road and I saw a lone hiker on the road. I thought it was his car but he said it wasn't. He was heading back but he told me a few details about what to expect on the trail. He told me it would take three hours to get to Neidong Forest Recreation Area which would turn out to be exactly right almost to the minute including a short stop for lunch.

While I was talking to him two young men riding dirt bikes drove by and disappeared down the road.

Just next to where the Laka Trail intersects the road is another trail angling back into the forest. This trail goes to the amusement park at the top of the falls. The large group (which I never saw) had gone that way because I could hear their bellowing fading away in that direction.

I turned right and set out with a feeling of euphoria. It felt really good to be walking on a wide, relatively flat trail, free to gaze around at the surrounding forest. I love the climbing and scrambling that is common on hikes in Taiwan but sometimes it's really nice just to put one foot in front of the other and not have to watch your feet all of the time.

I passed another car at the side of the road where a couple had set up a camping table and chairs under an awning and were having a picnic.

About 30 minutes of road walking brought me to a bridge over a rocky stream bed with stepped weirs.

Around the next bend was a traffic barrier. Beyond the barrier the road became a trail.

In another twenty minutes I passed a fainter trail on the right. It looks like this trail also leads to the theme park but I have not gone that way.

Soon I came a landslide of wet, red clay. This was the freshest looking of the obstructions I would see all day. I climbed up and and over. The motorcycle riders had also passed this way because I could see their tracks in the mud.

From here the walking was uneventful but really enjoyable. There were occasional nice views. I met a group of 4 hikers coming from the other direction. I did not talk to them but assumed that the white car i had seen by the side of the road was theirs and that they had just gone for an out-and-back hike.

Sometimes I could hear the engines of the dirt bikes or see their tracks and eventually I would catch and pass them while they were taking a rest. Near the end of the trail there were some very narrow parts that would be hard to negotiate on a motorcycle so I think they eventually turned back.

At 12:00 I passed a simple campsite and filed it away in my mind for a future camping trip.

Just past the campsite there was a lovely stream where I stopped for lunch.

From here it was about another hour and a half to the Neidong Forest Recreation Area.

Just before reaching Doll Valley and Neidong there was a fork.

I bore left at this fork.

It's possible to take the trail on the right down to the Xinxian trail and make the walk shorter but it would mean missing the two Neidong falls and the Wusha Creek Waterfall so I went left.

This was another really gorgeous trail.

In less than ten minutes I came out to the Neidong National Forest Recreation Area. The trail zig-zagged downhill gently. This was a area of well-kept trails and right away I started seeing more people. Hikers in casual clothes out for a short stroll and families.

At the bottom of the hill I took the left fork next to a shelter house. A sign pointed toward the lower waterfall. The right fork zig-zags downhill and comes out across the stream from the Wusha Creek Falls.

Eventually the trail led down wooden steps and I came to the viewing platform for the upper Neidong waterfall with it's rushing white cascade and blue pool. Then I passed the lower falls. Further downstream I got a glimpse of both waterfalls from a bridge over the river.

Upper Neidong Waterfall

Lower Neidong Waterfall

I rested on a bench next to the river where I messaged a friend who had spent the night camping near Wulai and arranged to meet up with him there later.

The paved path continued next to the river and in about 30 more minutes came to the viewing platform for the Wusha Creek Falls, where the Wusha Creek flows in to the Nanshi River.

I walked past the ticket booth for the Neidong Forest Recreation Area and came to the parking lot. It costs NT$80 to enter but hiking in from the other side you don't have to pay.

Looking back at the ticket booth

From here it was just a matter of following the signs to the Xianxian Trail. This 1.5 kilometer trail follows the river passing several cascades.

The last two where the most notable.

Shenglong Waterfall

After passing over the Xinxian Suspension Bridge, I reached the road leading back to Wulai and turned right now on the other side of the river.

It took about 50 minutes to walk back to where I had started in Wulai passing the big Wulai waterfall, the mini-train and the main tourist street of Wulai on the way. At the Wulai Waterfall viewing platform I stopped for a cold drink. There are lots of restaurants and shops selling drinks and snacks near the viewing platform and in the main part of the town.

Wulai 8:30 - Dadaoshan 10:03 - Neidong Forest Road 10:23 - Doll Valley/Neidong National Forest Recreation Area 13:22 - Xinxian Trail 14:39 - Road to Wulai 15:00- Wulai Parking lot 15:48

Other nearby hikes:

Wulai to Yilan: Ayu Road and the Tong Hou Trail 桶後越嶺步道

A Yu Road and the Tong Hou River Primitive Campground 桶後溪營地

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Map and GPS coordinates:

Laka Trail trailhead: 24.860492, 121.553701

Dadao Shan 24.850909, 121.55839

Neidong Forest Recreation Area parking lot: 24.834913, 121.526878

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Taiwan Hiking Journal

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Sunday, April 30, 2023

Yuemei Cave Trail 月眉洞步道 and Xian Dong Hu Shan 仙洞湖山 Loop Hike

Saturday, April 15, 2023

Wulai Long Loop: Laka Trail, Dadaoshan 大刀山 , Neidong Forest Road and the Neidong National Forest Recreation Area 內洞森林遊樂區

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Nuandong Valley Park 暖東峽谷, the Xishikeng Old Trail 西勢坑古道 and Xishi Reservoir 西勢水庫

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