My Family's First Visit to Formosa: Su-hua Highway and Taroko National Park

Su'hua Highway Blues

No trip to Taiwan is done without a trip to Taroko National Park (太魯閣國家公園) -- its the Grand Canyon of Taiwan. As we were admiring the park, it reminded all of us of Colorado, just different trees (and whole lot more humidity), those rocky canyons seemed all too familiar. They were all homesick.

Having been to Taroko before, I was more excited about the drive there from Yilan down the Su-hua Highway (蘇花公路). It was definitely beautiful, majestic turquoise waters, but I still think the coastal highways around Taitung  (especially around Taimali) are just as beautiful. My folks were more concerned about making the drive alive, they were unprepared for the reckless drivers overtaking each other along cliffs and the sharp mountain switchbacks.

More Su'hua Highway Blues

We stopped for lunch at some hole in the wall, mom and pop roadside diner, a pizza place with free WiFi, that was totally empty. My mom wanted fried rice, having warned her fried rice is pretty much the same everywhere, she still wanted to know what was in it....so she tried it, ate it all, but I think none of them were too impressed. Z and I were stoked to get some semblance of a pizza, corn and all. Food was one area of anxiety for my mom, everything had gluten and too much sugar-and that's all too true, but I it fell on deaf ears to just let it go for just a few weeks. I didn't even tell her, out of pity, that everything was probably loaded with MSG.

We arrived at Taroko too late to really explore it, just a day trip with the usual walks, no real hikes. They weren't up for anything athletic anyways, so at their pace we admired the natural beauty. Things got pretty exciting when a big tourist bus hogged the small mountain road and forced my Dad to reverse into the taxi behind us. There was no harm done, no car damage, so I told him to not worry about it and the taxi driver seemed pretty nonchalant, but it did make a great memory, "Remember the time that Chinese tourist bus..."

Mom and Dad crossing the bridge

My daughter was in heaven pretending to be our tour guide and spending time with her favorite Uncle.I had fun with him on some of the suspensions bridges, making it jump, us giggling like children.

Ed, me and Z at the Eternal Spring Shrine