Maolin National Scenic Area, Maolin District, Kaohsiung City, Taiwán
The Maolin Valley Waterfall was kind of our waterfalling excuse to do a trail that felt like a bit of an Indiana Jones-like adventure even though we were on a well-established trail in a scenic reserve – the Maolin National Scenic Area. The excursion involved going over a pair of suspension bridges perched high above a gorge, a semicircular arched bridge that reminded me of some of the ones we noticed in Japan, and mountain-hugging trails surrounded by lush mountain scenery that really made us feel as if we really were part of some kind of jungle adventure. As for the waterfall itself, it was probably a modest 20-25m or so, which was contrary to the signage claiming this was 100m tall. Unless there were unseen tiers above the main drop that we saw, maybe they got the units wrong as it was more like 100ft? Anyways, given the amount of work it took to get all the way to the falls, it was understandably more of a swimming hole than a photo op. That said, there were also opportunities closer to the trailhead to cool off as well.
Our hike began from a car park area towards the end of a narrow single-lane road. The trail that we followed definitely felt like it was newly renovated, which corroborated the signage saying that this trail had been closed for 5 years since the destruction by Typhoon Morakot in 2009 then 27 million Taiwanese Dollars were spent to fix it back up. Indeed, the trail climbed up some steps as it passed the newly renovated entrance pavilion before following along one side of the gorge flanked by tall bamboo stalks. Much of the trail involved wooden steps to handle the steeper climbs and descents with railings erected to help the unsure against the dropoffs on the other side of them.
Epic Taiwan Culture & Adventure Route © Monika Newbound
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