Taroko

Before I visited Taiwan, I imagined that it was one, big, dirty city where people eat dogs. (That last part is based on stories a kid from my Sunday School class used to tell.) So I was in awe when Dave's family drove us out from Taipei, through a new and incredibly long mountain tunnel, and down the winding east coast of the island. Check out the mist coming down over the mountains, juxtaposed with steep cliffs and the Pacific Ocean:

Our destination was Taroko Gorge, a marble canyon carved over the centuries by a confluence of rivers.

It was like being in a painting! There were Buddhist shrines to visit, and memorials for workers who died building the highway we drove out on:

Testing out the waters (chilly!):

If I were the creative sort who wrote poetry or created visual art or composed music, I think I would've been inspired. But for us, a morning hike was just the thing.