The lingering “Mei Yu” Front, which refers to the rainy season, has brought extremely heavy rains throughout Taiwan. The Taroko National Park has had its share of heavy rainfall and has even started showing signs of falling rocks. As a result, the Taroko National Park Headquarters has closed the Tunnel of Nine Turns Trail temporarily and travelers are warned about the danger of falling rocks after extremely heavy rains and earthquakes. So avoid entering the park for safety reasons. If entry is unavoidable, walk close to the mountain wall and stay out of areas with unstable rock stratum.

The Taroko National Park is located in the region of high earth crustal movement. The rock stratum gets compressed by the earth’s plate movements, triggering numerous major and minor earthquakes.  Because of the mountain cracks, seepage and washout brought on by extremely heavy rains, rocks break up, become loose and easily fall off, posing threats to visitors and motorists passing by.

Despite the fact that the Taroko National Park Headquarters has already set up the necessary warning signs along sections likely to have falling rocks in the Central Cross-Island Highway and Su-hua Highway within the Taroko National Park, including scenic spots and trails inside the park, possible falling rocks are not easy to detect and pinpoint for early warning. In fact, the locations and timing of falling rocks are unpredictable. Visitors are reminded to pay more attention to this and they are strongly advised not to enter areas where rocks tend to fall off easily after extremely heavy rains and earthquakes.

According to the Taroko National Park Headquarters, most of the national park is natural wilderness area with possibilities of falling rocks all the time, such as Swallow Grotto and Tunnel of Nine Turns in Taroko Gorge.  Such areas have records of falling rocks even without extremely heavy rains or earthquakes.

Although falling rocks pose danger to visitors, this is a natural phenomenon. Taiwan is a mountainous island located in a region with high earth’s crust or plate movement. Therefore, falling rocks are common in the mountain areas. 

The Taroko National Park boasts the natural beauty of high mountains and deep ravines. It was formed as a result of the high earth’s crust movement in the area. When sightseeing in such natural and open country, remember that there are risks beyond human control. Aside from staying alert regarding personal safety during outdoor activities, the advice is to stay out of wild and natural environment areas during periods of extremely heavy rains or earthquakes.