Cross Island Highway

It's only a two hour train ride around the coast to Kaoshung on the west side of Taiwan

. . . but we wanted to see the mountains and the interior of Taiwan.




















At first it was pretty easy going, and the views were magnificent.

But it's not the recommended way to go, because it's a long steep narrow and curvy road that is often closed due to the rock slides.
























It started to get foggy, and rainy, and dark. There wasn't really any place to stop. Finally we pulled over and just spent the night in the car.





















The next morning we still had a long way to go.

On the other side of the pass, it cleared up and we had more beautiful views of the mountains, but the twisty road was getting dizzying.

And we frequently had to stop for rock slides.














Maybe we should find another way across?!



















We made it!

Sun Moon Lake

While Alison was in Taipei doing teacher training, McKinley and Joplin visted SunMoon Lake on the west side of Yushan Mountain.

It was a long drive, but it's a beautiful lake and we found a nice campsite by the water.
















We climbed up to this temple that overlooked the lake.

Stop One: Hiking

First we drove up a road and saw a waterfall. We were going with our Canadian friend Jeff and his two girls when we realized that they didn't have diapers. So they went back to the 7-11 to get supplies, and Papa and I went to the waterfall. When they got back, we went hiking. On the mountain, there was a root and dirt overhang, the roots held it all together. Papa told me a story about ants.