The Hidden Forest Pool
Personal heaven
I thought a lot about posting anything about this place. Its easy accessibility could lead to crowds and trash. It's become my personal summer retreat over the past few years when I need a solo escape and it was a lot of work to discover. However, it's a cool place and it goes to show Taiwan has some beautiful spots that are still to be discovered by the masses. So I’ve decided to make a short post with no location. I often read urbex and hiking stuff where locations aren't given and still enjoy the adventure and the pictures so I hope you will too.
Some Thoughts
View of the pool from the top of the small waterfall
If you want adventure stuff skip this part: My intentions for this map and blog were always to introduce the abundance of cool places around Taiwan that don't make it into tourist brochures. It's also a personal scrapbook in some ways and it's always nice to meet people who've used it to have an awesome time here. While I often provide directions so others can enjoy places I have learnt to be more selective over the years. I even removed directions from some places when I realized the map had gone over 100'000 views. For example this pool is tiny, dangerous, and close to an MRT, so it's best to keep the crowds away. Lingjiao can comfortably hold crowds and they do somewhat self-police, so I see no problem giving directions there.
The problems come when otherwise well-intentioned bloggers provide very detailed location information to small and fragile places like this one. While original sources can really drive home environmental consciousness and responsibility, once the location filters out into the wider internet that message can soon be lost. Once it's on every local and international blog and Instagram crowds of 80+ descend with BBQ's onto places that can hold maybe 20 at most. I'm not seeing any reduction in the garbage problem in recent years and many people going to recently popular locations seem totally unprepared. The amount of people going to the Wormhole who couldn't swim was ridiculous. There's a fine line between introducing beautiful natural places responsibly and unintentionally helping to destroy them. On balance I feel it's better to be a little vague or leave locations out, even if that does frustrate a few readers, because seeing somewhere like this ruined really wouldn't be worth a few extra followers.
On a cool clear morning
The Trace
The start of the trace doesn’t suggest greatness
I don't have a name for this location. I knew about it for years before I found it based just on an image and knowledge of the rough area that it's in. The area contains at least 20 rivers and streams but I got lucky with an early pick.
I think the reason this place has remained quite hidden is it looks so unpromising when viewed from the bridge at the start: Just a flat boring stream. It's only after walking for a hundred meters or so the channel changes into a gentle braiding cascade through a lush forest. It's like stumbling from an ordinary brook into a little mythical forest.
The sheer amount of green everywhere is pretty staggering. Each boulder has a forest in miniature growing over it and the valley is draped in large ferns. Even after heavy rains the stream isn't especially powerful so the boulders haven't been stripped of their greenery.
Looking downriver from the pool
After a ten minute or so scramble you'll reach the main pool. Minerals and a sandy bed give the deep part a milky blue color while the outskirts are clear. A small waterfall enters on the far side and the pool gets enough sunlight throughout the day to not feel dank or cold.
The area is not completely unknown. I've noticed the aftermath of a campfire before. One time two local guys were here. One silently collected leaves while another spoke English and was very surprised to find me there. He and my friend rescued a fish from an unseen local's trap exclaiming “God sent me here to save this fish!” It was delightfully surreal. However on other hot sunny weekends I've not seen another soul here.
Local dude swimming
Tracing up the river there's a shaded canyon filled with the potholes common on rivers in this area. A little way further a waterfall plunges into a cave. For a while I couldn't find a way past this obstacle but on my last trip I worked out a route around.
The waterfall buried under boulders
The valley here is steep-sided and vegetation is thick. Quite often there are large boulders blocking the stream meaning very little of this river trace took place in the actual river. It seemed like every time I got around and on top of one waterfall I was blocked by another. Eventually I came to this pretty cascade hidden behind a boulder the size of a house.
The sheer cliff suggested this was as far as I'd get but I managed to find a side slope to scramble up. Above this the valley flattened out and for a couple of hundred meters the trace was easygoing.
A peaceful valley upriver
The next waterfall was neither passable nor photogenic. Perhaps if I had another look around I could find a way around it but I wasn't looking forward to fighting through more vegetation. I was covered in cuts and dirt already.
As far as I got
One unexpected find above the first waterfall was what seemed to be some very old farm terraces. They had clearly been forgotten for many decades. Perhaps there was once a path to these but I couldn't see any easy way to or from them. Otherwise there was only thick forest in this valley.
An old stone terrace wall
For this one the location is not on the Hidden Taiwan Map but you will find plenty of other great swimming spots and waterfalls on there. My next post on the area will actually give some directions to one. The adventures that make up these entries are often posted as Instagram stories at tomrookart first. So give that a follow too if you like as it can sometimes be a year or more before stuff turns up here!