Day 10 - Explore Kenting
Kenting National Forest Recreation Area 墾丁國家森林遊樂區
Sail Rock 船帆石
Eluanbi Light House 鵝鑾鼻燈塔
Maobitou (Cat Nose) 貓鼻頭
There are lots to explore in the beautiful Kenting! Kenting is known for beaches, but it was too cold in December to swim, so we visited other spots instead. The National Forecast Recreation Area exceeded our expectation! It was surreal, with coral reef rocks in the forest, cool caves, and walking through narrow cracks between giant rocks. Definitely allocate half a day here! Sail Rock was a fun road-side quick stop for some pictures. Elaunbi Light House is a popular touristy area. Maobitou is a bit out of the way from the main road but a worthwhile stop with beautiful scenery, and of course, a rock that looks like a cat’s head. The Southern-most Point was on our list but we were on a tight schedule and had to skip it, hope to visit it next time. We had a full day with these four stops, then headed up to Kaohsiung for the night market!
Kenting National Forest Recreation Area 墾丁國家森林遊樂區
This forest recreation area far exceeded our expectation! It was one of Megan’s favorite spots in the whole trip! Due to tectonic plate shifts over time, you can see lots of coral reef rocks up in the forest, very surreal. There are two very cool caves, very unexpected in a forest near the ocean. There are tree roots from above that extends into the caves. Walking through narrow cracks of the canyons makes for some cool pictures! And you can get a nice view from the top of the tower in the park. Follow the map and you should be able to hit all the spots. Everything is by foot so allow about 3 hours for this park. There is a restaurant on top of the tower, prices seemed reasonable but we didn’t eat there as it was mostly western food. Definitely a highlight of our visit to Kenting!
Sail Rock 船帆石
There should be a beach but we passed by quite a few tour buses and didn’t see the beach. Instead, we found a secret path by the side of the road into a coral area with coral rocks as far as the eyes can see. We could skip from rock to rock or walk in between the corral reefs (they’re already dead), which was fun and made for some cool pictures! The Sail Rock is a nice view but it’s a rock in the ocean and not reachable. It’s worth a quick 30-minute stop on the side of the road!
Eluanbi Light House 鵝鑾鼻燈塔
The southern-most light house near the southern tip of Taiwan, this is a popular landmark that almost all tourists will visit. As such, there is plenty of parking and shops for the tour groups. The light house is a short walk away from the parking lot; there are paths to the bottom but the path ends without access to the beach, just the view. The large grassy area by the light house is a nice place to chill and relax before hitting the road again!
Maobitou (Cat Nose) 貓鼻頭
We were glad we visited Maobitou! It was a bit out of the way on our drive up to Kaohsiung, but the ocean view here is beautiful, and seeing the cat rock was pretty cool! The walk up to the viewing point was pretty easy, and the breeze felt nice! We had a funny moment where some of us thought we saw the cat rock and were comparing notes on which one looked more like the cat, well before we actually got to the viewing spot of the actual cat nose rock!
Voyagers Tips: To make the small background rock appear bigger next to a person, take the picture far away from the subject then zoom in. It’s a cool trick whenever you want the background object to appear bigger.