Another Day, Different Mountain

Monday was a day trip up to a national park in central Taiwan called Ba Shen San , which means The Eight Immortals Mountain. (Why it's called that I'm not sure.) It was a rainy, foggy day, but that made for less tourist in the park. By the time we left the park around 4pm, we were the only car in the parking lot!

On the way, we stopped at a Ke Ren Cultural Center, which was unfortunately closed on Monday, but we walked around the grounds and fed some fish.

When we arrived, the national park was full of mist, occasional rain ... and giant spiders! Green and black striped abdomen, yellow and black legs. Bonus points for any etymologists that can identify it for me. Hard to catch a good picture, but I tried.

We hiked about a 3-km loop up to the mountain path trailhead and back. And this is what we saw:

Rivers and waterfalls...

Misty rest stops...

Native flora...

Mountainside temples to house the spirits of boulders...

And bamboo forests...

As we left, the mist lifted and left us with beautiful views.