Welcome to Yilan, What's not there to do here?

I updated this section as of June 2016 to add links to other trails, waterfalls, we since have explored.

Nanao Township, Yilan

I've been living in Yilan now for two months and am loving it here. My friend from Tainan came up to visit his wife's family in Yilan and of course we met up. Our biggest obstacle was figuring out which beach, mountain, hot springs, river, lake to spend the day with our kids.

I have a nice map from the very reliable, efficient, English speaking Tourist info center outside the Yilan train station and I've been studying it, ticking off places as I go, asking my new workers their recommendations  and enjoying the pristine outdoors.

Beaches:
I already went to Wulai Beach (see previous post Little Gems) and have been so busy exploring Yilan county, I haven't time to return except last Sunday to see how the coming typhoon was affecting the waves. (The beach patrol wouldn't let us on the beach, so we just admired from afar.)

Yongzhen Park and Trail

Having come from Anping and living literally a two minute scooter ride from the beach, I had to go to the closest beach to me. Its called Yongzhen Seaside Park and its just a 5 minute drive from my work here in  Zhuangwei. There is a nice bike path that goes along the beach. The sand was nice, grey and surprisingly clean. There were breakers that ruined the views down the beach that stretched out into forever in both directions, but this area gets hit pretty hard by typhoons.The beach was empty as it was ghost month when I went. There was a beach patrol station that was probably on freak out mode because we seemed to go far into the waves, but the water was quite shallow. I need to go back and see if people use it since ghost month, bring our bikes and explore that path.

Neipei Beach from the Suhua Highway

I was not expecting Neipei Beach outside Suao to be so stunning. There is no sand, just small pebbles and stones, but the surrounding rocks are gorgeous and the beach is  long enough for us to find some quiet alone time far from the crowds. There are cafes and simple restaurants are on one end for a quick pick me up. The other end has rocks and places to picnic in the shade of a cliff. On a holiday weekend, we had the entire Pacific, at least this bit to ourselves.

My beach list includes is returning to Wulai for surfing and sunrise yoga and to explore Beigan Tidal Park and the Wushibi coast.

Trails
There is a trail outside Nanfang'ao. Just park your car across from the massive pool. At the top are amazing views of the Yilan coast, picnic tables, hammocks. I am thinking it would make a great camping spot.

Yilan Coast view from a hike

The Linmei Shihpan Trail (林美石磐薄荷烤雞餐廳) is simple, about an hour loop with a pretty little waterfall. There is one set of verticle trails, but other than that is a perfect trail for young children.

There is also the Caoling Historic Trail,  various trails in Taipingshan National Park (behind Taroko), and in Yuanshan Township.

Gardens:

View from Renshan Gardens

Between Loudong and Suao is the Renshan Botanic Garden (宜蘭仁山植物園). It was nothing what I expected. I expected something like the Botanic Gardens in Taipei or Denver, but this place was huge. I think we entered it wrong and before we knew it, we were doing some hardcore hiking with little water or preparation, The grounds are massive.

We didnt see a single soul for hours until the end. The French and English style gardens were in the bare minimalist style, nothing was in bloom, but we saw macaques,and  alien looking spiders. The view from Renshan to Turtle island with the verdant, fertile valley of the Yilan plain is the quintessential picture of Yilan.

On my garden list to do is explore the Fushan Botanical Gardens west of Yilan City in Yuanshan, which requires a special permit.

Waterfalls:
I went twice to the famous Wufongqi waterfalls and returned to that area and hiked another trail to the more impressive, hard to get to Yuemeikeng Waterfalls.

Outside Loudong there are two waterfalls the upkept Xinliao Waterfalls down the road from the Renshan Botanic Gardens.

Xinliao Waterfalls

Down the road is the less impressive Jiulio Waterfalls, but because they were empty and we were the only ones there, I liked having it all to myself. The trail hasnt been taken care of, but its a nice path, overgrown and neglected. The pool is shallow but enjoyable enough for kids. Standing under the falls for a neck massage is a nice treat.

Jiulio Falls

Aohua Falls

There are so many waterfalls in the area, I'm learning about more all the time. The most impressive were south of Nan-ao called the Aohua Waterfalls outside the little aboriginal village of the same name. The pool is massive, the falls are massive. The brave can climb the slippery wall and jump into the cold, mineral abyss.

Linmei Shipah Waterfall

Lakes:
The first lake I went to here was Longtan Lake. It was recommended by my coworker Steve who helped me get a job and my first apartment in Yilan. This lake is conveniently close to Yilan, we went by scooter. We rented bikes, it was casual. Unfortunately cars can drive around the one lane which is dangerous and noisy, especially with so many bikers, joggers and walkers. I've been meaning to return with a yoga mat and a picnic basket.

Longtan Lake

The second lake I went to also conveniently close to Yilan City is Plum Blossom (Mei Hua) Lake. Its more crowded with numerous bike outfitters to rent the most outrageous bikes. There were side by side 2 and 4 seaters, of course electric bikes. I saw a bike with  4-5 seats in the shape of a Cinderella carriage.

Meihua Lake

There are many lakes I hope to check out, some include difficult hikes. I'm still working on a list. Yuanshan has several lakes with hikes and fishing.

Meihua Lake

Parks:
Conveniently right by my home is the massive Yilan Sport's Park. There is a track, Olympic size outdoor pool, weight room, rollerblading track and outside gymnasium. Not to mention fireflies at night. Loudong's Sports Park is supposedly better, but I'm satisfied with the one outside my front door.

Yilan Sport Park

We thoroughly are enjoying Yilan on our weekends. There is plenty to do. Did I mention the mineral springs? Yilan has both cold and hot springs. That will have to be another post.

Over the Moon: Mid Autumn Festival Yilan Style

Suao port and beach from Suhua Highway

The one thing to expect on a 3 day weekend in Taiwan are the crowds. That and train tickets will be sold out 2 weeks before they sell at the station (you can buy online with a Taiwanese ID #). So when we had moments of crowd-less nature, I definitely was over the moon with gratitude. It was also the first time in 6 years I was free in my own car to explore Yilan.

The empty Neibi beach, Suao.

Saturday Day 1 of our Moon festival weekend, went as planned. On our way to Nanao, we stopped for coffee at Neibi beach. It was totally desolate. We had the rooftop cafe to ourselves as well as the view of the Pacific. Where were all the crowds? In Kenting no doubt. After coffee and a shared shaved matcha iced tea with red beans we were back in the car.

The woman at the cafe told me in Mandarin that the local Matsu temple was moving the goddess idol to visit a god in Yilan and she explained times and locations. I was pretty giddy to have my comprehension of her explanation proved when we ran into the pilgrims. They had the coolest shirts, a sea of red devotees.

My friend climbing for a jump, Auhua Waterfalls.

After that it was back in the car to Nan'ao and there we found the crowds, bumper to bumper on the notoriously dangerous and most beautiful highway, the Suh-ua Highway. Its danger is not due to the narrow one lane switchbacks that plummet to the Pacific, but because fellow drivers are impatient and pass the corners on blind spots.

Outside a little aboriginal village called Aohua (the 161 km marker) there is the most magnificent waterfall. Three aboriginal teens on one scooter took us there. There were other cars in the lot and we hiked up a 5 minute walk, scrambled some rocks and there it was. There were a few families, but the pool was so enormous, the water dwarfed us so there was room enough for all. My companion bravely scrambled a bit up the wet and slippery rocks to plummet into the sparkling cold abyss.

 

We went home as planned, beat, ready for Sunday and finding a camping spot. Our day 2 definitely did not go as planned, except for the coffee at the revolving cafe on Highway 7. We found a camping spot next to Champing Lake, which was fairly close, like 15 minutes outside of Loudong. There was a lake circumstanced by wooden walkways and the camp spots had wooden platforms and BBQ grills. There was even a go-cart track. Surpisingly, there were few campers, maybe 2 or 3 tents that I could see. And still, greedy for solitude, we kept going further up the 7, farther away from big cities, only to find more crowds and rain. Camping did not happen. 

We did go up the eastern part of the North Cross highway to check out the Mingchi Forest Recreation area. It was disappointing. The lake was over-developed and charged an entrance fee. The Forest area itself has a massive resort  (明池國家森林遊樂區) on it with cabins and a restaurant that was of course crowded. The North Cross Highway which is high in altitude has some nice views and dark, misty, dank forests. There were moments we drove in clouds and we definitely got caught in the rain on the way back. We took a walk behind the cabins and found a few trails, but there were no camping spots there. Who knows we might com back on a non-holiday weekend and stay in one of the cabins.

Day 3 of our Moon Festival weekend, on Monday, we took our time heading out to one more nearby waterfall. Around the corner from Xingliao Waterfall is the abandoned Jiuliou Waterfall, about a 20 minute drive from my home. The trail was not very well maintained, but there wasn't another person there. We had the whole overgrown trail and small waterfall to ourselves. The overgrown parking lot is a perfect camping spot, no bathrooms, wooden platforms or vending machines. The path from the parking lot to the trail has a pomelo orchard on it. Pomelo is the fruit of the mid-Autumn festival.

We will hopefully return to those falls to camp next weekend.

Turtle Island from the Suao/Suhua Highway overlook