Breathtaking Alishan! Day 1

Alishan!  Alishan!  How beautiful thou art!

On Saturday morning, Karyn and I caught a train to Chiayi and then got on a bus to Alishan.  (The bus which we had all to ourselves.)  (We would have caught a train to Alishan, as it is a very famous and beautiful train ride, but as you can tell from this picture the train ride up was unavailable;)  It took a little over two hours on the bus to get from Chiayi to Alishan.  We went up and up and up on windy mountain roads.  It was so beautiful!  
 

When we arrived at our destination, we got a map and planned out where we wanted to go.  We found the hostel we had booked a few days before and unpacked a few of our things and then went exploring!  It was beautiful, peaceful and the air was so clean! 

Look at this awesome stump!

“In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect. Trees can be contorted, bent in weird ways, and they're still beautiful.”  Alice Walker

 

Beautifulness!

This is Giant Tree #28. (Yes that was its name).  It is huge and it's over 2000 years old!  If this cypress tree could talk I wonder what kind of story it could tell us about its life and observations. 

“Reading about nature is fine, but if a person walks in the woods and listens carefully, he can learn more than what is in books, for they speak with the voice of God.” George Washington Carver

One of the many trails in the forest!  This was on the Giant Trees Trail!

I couldn't resist lying on the train track at the end of the line.

 I look dead in this picture ;) 

Divine Tree! Look at the picture below to learn more about this tree!  It's hard to tell from this picture, but this tree is quite ginormous lying on the ground! 

Divine Tree description!

It's a little hard to tell but I'm standing inside of the tree!

Another trail though the forest!  Aren't the trees beautiful?! 

Tree Spirit Pagoda!

So I was taking a picture of Karyn with the Tree Spirit Pagoda and this big tour group came up behind us.  They saw Karyn up there getting her picture taken and the whole group precedes to have their picture taken with her and the Pagoda! They were more excited about getting a picture with her than with the Pagoda.  It was so funny!  We were laughing about that one for awhile!  A few of them got a picture with me too!

Just pondering in the forest inside of an old tree stump! 

“I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in.”  George Washington Carver

 

Red and orange leaves!

A cemetery in the forest!  The picture above was the view from the cemetery! 

Karyn and I near the cemetery in the above picture!

Do you see the elephant trunk and eye?! 

This is the other side of the elephant tree!

This is inside the elephant tree looking up!

Read the description about the Three Generation Tree!  It was pretty awesome!

Three Generation Tree! Sadly I didn't get any really good pictures of the tree, but here I am in front of it! 
The first generation is the log underneath.  The second is the part that makes the arch.  The third is on the top that looks like a normal tree.

I love this shot with the old tree stump and the sun shining through the trees!

Forever One Heart!  These two trees grew together in the shape of a heart!  How beautiful is that?!

Happiness From Golden Pig!  I hope you see the pig :)

Sister Ponds!  This is Elder Sister Pond. There's a legend about these ponds, which you can read about in a couple of pictures down. 

I love this place!  Karyn and I sat and contemplated on that pavilion you see in the picture!  It was so peaceful and lovely! 

Elder Sister Pond!

 Younger Sister Pond, which was not quite as nice as Elder Sister Pond, but still lovely in its own way!   

The story!

Four Sisters!  I like these trees called four sisters, since there are four sisters in my family, including myself.

This is what the sign said about the Four Sisters: "On top of one big stump of cypress trees after its falling, four natural seeds of the same species happened to be air-delivered there and grow into four rather closely gathered trees reminding people of four end endearing sisters."

Our hostel!  We stayed at a Catholic hostel near the entrance of the Alishan Recreation Area!  The price was good.  The beds were soft and the blankets were warm. 

It was a marvelous first day on top of the world in the majestic and magnificent mountains and forest of Alishan!