The Golden Grotto (黃金峽谷) is a beautiful slot canyon up a remote river valley near Hualian, Taiwan. Located a few kilometers south of the entrance to Taroko Gorge National Park (太魯閣國家公園) or a few Kilometers north of Hualian (花蓮), the entrance to the Pratan South River is in Pratan Village (aka SanJhan South River (三棧南溪) and SanJhan Village (三棧)).
Jumping off one of the waterfalls behind the Golden Grotto near Hualian, Taiwan.
We had a beautiful mid-November weekend on our hands and wanted to do something new. Unfortunately, a few of us were getting over early winter colds and didn’t feel like a real hardcore hike like we usually do on these weekends. So we decided to take a nice slow drive from Taipei to Hualian.
Now this was a stretch for us… going slow. Usually, we drive as fast as we can so we can get to our destination and hike as fast as we can. But this trip, we drove slowly. So slowly in fact, that the usual 4 hour drive to Hualian took us 8 hours! We stopped at a few beaches in Yilan (宜蘭), tried to find a waterfall in DongShan (冬山), had a motorcycle breakdown, and then stopped at another beach in Dong-Ao (東澳).
Stopping for a break from the drive at Dong-Ao Beach, just south of Yilan, Taiwan.
When we finally got to Pratan, there happened to be a music festival called the Peace Fest. Good time. Some good bands played. Ate some good food (a rarity for a hiking trip). Drank too much some beer. Didn’t get much sleep that night listening to the damn hippies bang their damn bongo drums, but it’s cool, they were having fun.
On to the river trace…
The river that goes through Pratan forks just to the west of the town. To get to the Golden Grotto, take the branch to the south and start walking. For the first kilometer or two, there is a trail on the southern bank that’s a little faster than walking through the river. It takes you up along an aqueduct that was built many years ago by the KMT and American governments to supply Pratan with irrigation and drinking water.
The first 2 hours of this river trace is OK, but it get a little monotonous.
As far as river tracing goes, this one wasn’t the most exciting. You have to cross the river a few times and swim in a spot or two, but there weren’t many small waterfalls or places to climb. We all found the multiple colored and multiple textured rocks very interesting though. It’s had to believe that blue, red, green and yellow stones can all be fount in the same small river.
One of the really cool rocks in the Pratan South River, near Hualian and Taroko Gorge, Taiwan.
A look at the variety of colors of rocks that can be found in the Pratan South River, on the way to the Golden Grotto.
A look at the variety of rocks we saw on our hike through the Pratan South River on our way to the Golden Grotto near Hualian, Taiwan.
The first 2 hours of this river trace is OK, but it get a little monotonous. There are a lot of big rocks to climb over.
Two and a half hours after leaving Pratan, we finally came to a stretch of the river where the sides of the valley became very steep.
Phil, myself, Stu and Ross as we near the Golden Grotto in the Pratan South River near Hualian and Taroko Gorge, Taiwan.
Walking through the Pratan South River (almost at the Golden Grotto).
And a few minutes after that we came to the Golden Grotto. It’s a slightly difficult climb up some big boulders to get to the first grotto, but luckily this entire trace is slip-free. I don’t know why, but most of the river traces in these mountains don’t have much algae growing and it makes climbs like this that much easier.
This is it, the Golden Grotto. You can swim across it and climb into a tight slot canyon with several waterfalls.
You can swim across the main grotto and climb up a few waterfalls to the beautiful caves. They are not really caves though, they are 100 meter walls of rock that the small river flows through.
Inside the cavern behind the main pool of the Golden Grotto.
In the end, we had a great time and decided to go back someday. The river upstream from the Golden Grotto seems interesting and might need to be explored when we have more time!
Thanks for reading,
-neil
That water looks very inviting.
The water was unbelievably clear, but a little cold. It amazing how the southern mountain streams often have water that is that clear.
[...] Wade goes river tracing in [...]
Cool pics mate! I’ve got to get a better camera for this kind of thing…. haven’t got the balls to take my SLR and my little camera is rubbish!
What a beautiful lake in Taiwan..
I’ve never been and heard of it, even I’m a Taiwanese.
Probably, I should call it pool instead of lake..
Great blog. I teach on a few Photography Holidays around the world and I’ll definitely be recommending this blog to my students who are always asking me about good travel photography websites!
I want to go here.
Very Cool. My brother and I were in Hualien a couple of years ago. We hiked up the river via the shakadong(?) trail I believe and there were many amazing pools. But I don’t think we were at the one in your blog. I’ll have to look into that next time I go.
Peace.
Great stuff, man. Always nice to see the work of a peer. You should add buttons to the bottom of your posts to digg, stumble, etc your content.-Tom
Thanks Tom. You just inspired me to figure out how to add that button. I tried to do it a few months ago but couldn’t figure it out!
我以前住在花蓮兩年,我知道這個地方,我去過好幾次,花東是台灣最美的地點之一,我很喜歡你們的照片,很好看喔!我也很驚訝,我以為佬美只是喜歡去PUB喝酒,很高興看到這麼喜歡台灣的外國人,keep on the good work,加油!!!
謝謝吉雷米，我們愛台灣的美麗的地方!!!
I want go!!! Gorgeous! Can’t wait to go to Taiwan next year. Thanks for the great pics (and travel ideas!)
谢谢！
[...] operators in the area and I have had good experiences with the River King and can recommend the Golden Grotto and Shapodang trips that they [...]