The best forest trip ever in Daxueshan - Day 2

Dear guys,

The second day in Daxueshan, Dongshih Forest District Office is such an unforgettable day. Due to the heavy rain last night that makes the road slippery, the original plan of climbing the Shaolai mountain trail is cancelled (the blue line). Instead, we walk the Siaosyue Mountain trail, in which there are lots of magnificent forest scenery (the right-hand green line).

Olga leads us to this platform, from which I could see the nearest town. It is early in the morning at around 7a.m and the atmosphere is wonderful. Feeling the breeze and a pool of sunlight over my face is so much happy.

The platform view

Fantastic view

There is something truly magical about the sky and the cloud which really steals my heart!

The best forest trip ever in Daxueshan - Day 1

Hi guys, 

I'm going to write about our first day in Dongshih today. For (soon to be) obvious reasons, I'm going to include as many photos as I can. We left Aowanda on the 25^th July and travelled through surrounding mountains. It was really quite beautiful, we even visited aboriginal village. Then we slept in Taichung and headed for Dongshih the next day. Altitude in Dongshih is higher than altitude in Aowanda (Dongshih Nature Center is located 2275 metres above sea level), so the road was quite long and not easy to handle. When we finally got there, I was mainly surprised by the temperature, it was roughly 20 degrees. Shortly after our arrival we went on a first trail. We were supposed to reach Small Divine Tree, 1000 years old Red Cypress. I realized right away that Dongshih is really special place. Mist surrounded us, so we couldn't see too far away, but, in exchange, we got the feeling of being in a fairly tale. The Small Divine Tree was beautiful and it was interesting to think about all the stuff this tree lived through, how many people saw it, touched it.

Small Divine Tree, 1000 years old

Aowanda+Dongshih interns!

After lunch we went to see the second trail. We had to drive for couple of kilometers. I still think that was the single most beautiful place I have ever been to.

We have seen...

Syueshan Sacred Tree (1400 years old)

  

Tianchih

Common Foxglove, poisonous flower we were not supposed to touch

Mist was seen everywhere, and we couldn't see too far down, so it felt like we were on a small island, floating in the mist. And the 1400 years old tree was like this...center of the island, and by extension, of our small universe. The word „magical“ came to my mind a lot. They say that a picture is worth 1000 words, so...

On our way back to our cars it started raining. Even though I had a raincoat, I decided to not put it on and just enjoyed the rain. 

That's it for today,

See you soon:)

Sam