North Hehuan Peak and Taroko National Park

This is the campground where we stayed in Chingling Farm. They had wooden tent pads and the canvas tents for rent. Notice the European style architecture of the hotel on the hill. Most the spas and hotels were designed to look like resorts from the Alps. The teacher told me that many of them were built illegally. The terrain is too steep for building permits but I guess they build anyway. I assume insurance won't touch those illegal structures or would have an 'out' if a serious claim were filed. In any case, the town is very charming. There are Christmas trees and lights that I'm told are up throughout the year. They even had a Starbuck's in the little town.





Here are some small cabins you can rent at the campground too.
This is Mount Hehuan East on the way to the pass and our hike.
Here's a view of the road we came up and Chingling Farm (our campground) in the distance.




This is alpine bamboo. It grows very small at this altitude and blankets the mountain like grass.
This is the view looking toward the eastern coast. Those clouds slowly moved their way up the valleys toward us. It's a good idea to get an early start.
Those clouds are getting closer. And, that's alpine bamboo covering the mountain like grass.
That is the pass and the road we came over with Mount Hehuan East in the distance. The road is barely wide enough for one car in some places and driving gets interesting when the buses and trucks are coming down the mountain.

This is the view of the trail from the summit.
A happy hiker on the summit.

That pointy mountain on the right is next on the list.
This is teacher Chen and his family. They were my 'guides' on the trip.
On the way down the clouds were starting to kick up the sides of the mountains. It was a good time to be going down.
This a view from the campground with the late evening sun.