After a four year hiatus from the HeHuan Mountain region (three of them because we were in BC, though!) we finally returned to the backbone of Taiwan, the road-accessible alpine region with rhododendrons, endless birds, epic sunrises and trees older than most languages (yet smaller than most 5 year old trees from Canada). And, of course, snow.
This is one of the only places you can drive to in Taiwan to see snow, and despite being a tropical paradise for a large chunk of the year, its a frigid wet place for the other chunk which makes perfect company at high elevations for snow. We ventured up and up and up this weekend, four hours through Taroko gorge and past, on the side of the mountains all the way to the green top of Taiwan. Green when we got there, white when we left. Foggy all the time.
5:30 am, with the greatest of attempts to see a sunrise....
The only way home...towed up hills, lowered down hills. Lives in the hands of a stranger, gravity and one chain.
An early morning birding find...
A break along the 4 hour drive up to snag some scenery on our cameras and stretch our legs. On the right, a common lunch/dinner place that we stopped at for lunch. Typical of Taiwanese eateries. Egg, tofu, bamboo, cabbage, chinese cabbage, carrot, mushrooms, seaweed, ... .
Me with a harvest worth of field mushrooms on the left; eating lunch on the right.
The fog encrusted mountain - cloud cover that was to be the bearer of snow later that night. On the right I am forced to cross the border of illegal again (if only for a photo op!).
Crystal and her Dad trying to force each other off the mountain...nobody won (and, luckily, nobody lost!) and an evening card game in the 3000masl drought of oxygen.
Morning comes...cold and snow. Lots of snow. Our first for Taiwan!!
Posing in the snow on the left; a view of the roadway from our room on the right.
Morning comes, and we need to figure out a way down the mountain. Bald summer tires on a rental car...along steep cliff faces roadways with intermittent barriers..hmmm.... . While we play and think, three epic travelers make their way down the mountain on their scooters (after we helped them push the two-wheeled death traps up the hill...)
Getting towed in the snow and fog...trying to concentrate.
