Taipei to Yehliu Geopark : unfinished business with some hoodoos


Statistics for today
Distance 80.30 kms 49.71 miles
Ride time (hours) 4.80 -
Avg speed 16.7 kph -
Statistics for trip to date
Distance 539.30 kms 334.92 miles
Ride time (hours) 4.80 -
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Thursday, September 22nd, 2016

Typhoon Malakas got in the way of me visiting Yehliu Geopark last week; I rode out from Taipei only to be told at the gate they were closing due to the impending arrival of the typhoon. Not to be deterred, I signed up for round two of hellish mountain grades through Yangminghshan National Park to pay a visit to the parks hoodoos created by erosion on Taiwan's north coast.

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Monks doing their thing at a Taipei City intersection. Not sure what's up with all the dogs.
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Worth the detour. Be prepared to climb if you're on a bike.
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Another Taipei jalopy.
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Looking down on the National Palace Museum.
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Grades to make you hurl. I was having trouble keeping the front wheel on the ground on some of these.

The mountains are all fogged-in with rainclouds at elevation. I stop and put on my rain jacket and turn on my lights to limit the chances of getting rear-ended by a scooter.

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Into the clouds.
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Looking back down on the valley.
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Visibility: slightly impaired.
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So I'm waiting out a rainshower under a gazebo at the top of one of the mountains. Up pulls an older couple, they unpack a whole bunch of stuff and start making stir-fry. Reminds me of Argentina, except with woks instead of grills.
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I've run into a lot of dogs in my travels by bicycle, and I have to say Taiwanese dogs are exceptionally well-behaved. They just look politely as I pass by, no barking, no chasing. The polar opposite of Peruvian dogs.
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Click for a larger version of the picture

Yehliu Geopark costs $80 NT, or about $2.50 US dollars. Worth the trip, however even on a weekday the place was crawling with anxious Chinese tourists. I really don't get the selfy-stick thing. I would feel embarrassed to plant myself in front of a hoodoo and snap pictures of myself with a cellphone on a stick like some kind of new-age marshmallow.

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Yehliu Geopark, the call this "Queens head II".
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Not sure if it has a name. I would call it "bottle opener".
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Reminds me of Goblin Park in Utah.
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"Queens head". Impossible to get a shot that's not full of tourists. I had to wait 5 minutes for my turn, there was a long line of people taking selfies with this thing.
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Looking north.

The crowd clears out real quick once I start climbing the stairs to take the path out to the end of the peninsula. I guess they don't want selfies bad enough to sweat a little. The peninsula has great views of the coast north and south. I find a few pockets of bird photographers camped out in various places training their equipment on the bushes. Not sure what was there, I didn't see any exotic wildfowl myself.

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Stairs climbing to the top of one of the little mountains on the peninsula.
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Panorama of the coast looking south.
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From the end of the peninsula. Japan is out there somewhere.
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They are all looking at some exotic bird. Some serious equipment there.
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This one frames Keelung nicely. Let's call it "Godzilla".
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Tai-chi on the beach, in the Yehliu Geopark.
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"Leopard". Finally one where I can see the resemblance. He reminds me of Chewbacca.
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Not sure what that all is but judging by the smell of the place I would say various types of dried fish.

The ride back to Taipei is 35 kilometers of mostly urban death-ride. I have a blast weaving in and out of traffic, trying to carve out a spot among the swarms of scooters. I see a couple of bad scooter accidents. Not too surprising given the way they pass each other with only inches to spare. I've seen more than a few checking their cellphones while they ride as well.

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Keelung.
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Urban death ride: me v. scooters.