Yilan guishan island，experience dolphin Watching and Island Hiking.
Experience Yilan guishan island,At Wushi Fishing Harbor, you can sign up for a half-day trip to visit the island, walk around the island, and watch whales and dolphins. You can walk the Turtle Island Trail to visit the island, and then walk around the island to see the special volcanic landscape. The most appealing part of the trip is the whale and dolphin-watching activity, where the chances of spotting dolphins can be quite high!
Table of Contents
Scenery of the Island
Buy a ticket at the Wushi Fishing Port and you can sign up for a trip to board the island. (The island is not open to boarding on that day when the sea breeze is too strong, and it is closed in winter.) After boarding the island and disembarking from the boat, you need to leave the harbor immediately for fear of sudden big waves, and the tour guides will urge you to do so as quickly as possible.
After purchasing the tour, you have to follow the tour guide and are not allowed to move around on your own. Behind the harbor is the Turtle Island Military Tunnel, and the sea breeze passes through this tunnel, which is very cool.
There are a number of switchbacks in the tunnels which are basically blocked off, so just follow your guide, and at the end of the tunnels are the forts facing the ocean.
The original itinerary was to take a boat ride around the island to see the dolphins before boarding the island, but since the dolphins did not show up in the radar, we boarded the island to see the dolphins first. This means that if dolphins are spotted, the tour on the island will be stopped immediately.
At the beginning, we walked around Turtle Tail Lake and looked at the direction of the pit from the outside, it looked like a pug, the guide didn’t say that we couldn’t see it, but after saying that, we had a little feeling.
Pavilion on the lake.
A common tree at the beach.
Slowly the lake has come almost halfway around, and the far right in the photo is where the harbor is.
Due to the monsoon winds, the tail of the turtle swings with the different seasons, which brings rocks and continues to lengthen the tail of the turtle. In the early days, Turtle Islanders lived here on Turtle Tail and built their houses using rocks from local materials.
A warehouse for wood.
At present, the islanders have moved to the Yilan Toucheng area, and the island is now guarded by marine patrol officers.
The lilies bloom around April and May every year, and you can find groups of white flowers on the grass from time to time. I went to the island around mid-April and it was just the right time to see them in full bloom!
Due to time constraints, it is unlikely that the average tourist would go off the entire Turtle Island Trail, and with our guide keeping an eye out for dolphins, we proceeded to the Lagoon Trail.
The trail follows the mountain wall around Turtle Tail Lake in a half circle, and the final exit is right next to the pier, so you can leave as soon as you are notified that you need to get on a boat!
The weather was good and bad, in fact, it was raining heavily that morning, but luckily, it stopped just before we left, and we were able to take pictures of Turtle Tail Lake close to the trail, which was a spectacular sight, with lots of fish life in the lake as well.
A comfortable walk among the trees, the rock wall is often seen unknown small yellow flowers, also in this forest was informed that the dolphins have been spotted, the group was led by the guide to speed up the pace.
At the end of the trail, the sky to the north was clear and I wanted to visit this beautiful place again.
Dolphin Watching
If you want to see the dolphins, it is recommended to sit on the second floor, the indoor angle of the first floor is not good, the first floor of the outdoor basically randomly will be sprayed by the waves to the whole body wet, I sat on the second floor were sprayed to the sea water for several times~!
The bottlenose dolphins we encountered this time were about 30 or so in number, not far from the southeast of Turtle Island. I think they are used to boats and are not afraid of our approach.
The tour guide said that they would try to track down the dolphins as much as possible so that the tourists who bought the tour would have a better chance of watching them. We watched them for about 20 minutes, and then they were given over to the tourists from the other boats ~ I’m glad I was able to capture the dolphins jumping into the water as well!
Circumnavigation of the Island
The whole trip around the island started from the beginning to chase the dolphins, first half of the circle before going to chase, because the front is the way.
On the southern shore, you can see large and small sea caves, and the sea water is a light blue-green color, which is slowly approaching the Milk Sea.
Below the Turtle Head is the famous Milk Sea. Turtle Island is an active volcano, and sulfur is emitted from the bottom of the Turtle Head, causing the sea water to take on a light bluish-green color, with white elements in it. In the photo, you’ll see that the color of the sea in the upper-right is a darker blue, with a noticeable difference.
Here you will smell the strong odor of sulfur.
Once you pass the turtle’s head you’ll notice a distinct color break. （There’s no sulfur in the dark blue waters.)
We left the Milk Sea and went after the dolphins. When we returned to Turtle Head, it was almost evening, the slopes of Turtle Head are dark green and light green, this is because of the volcanic nature of the slopes, there are many grooves in the slopes, in the grooves there are no erosion from the sea winds, so there are trees (dark green), the other parts of the sea winds only the manzanita grasses can live (light green).
On the north side, there are two sea caves, this is the Cobra Cave, the same can not be seen without saying, but after saying that it is quite similar to ~ ~.
The whole trip took about four hours, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. I bought the ticket in the afternoon, and it was already after five o’clock when I went back to the shore, no matter it was the dolphins, the scenery, or the geological phenomenon, all of them were very impressive! It was a worthwhile trip!
Ticket Information
1.kkday online tickets (much cheaper than at the venue) ->kkday Turtle Island boarding, island hopping, whale and dolphin watching, and milk sea SU P.
2. Purchase tickets at the Wushi Fishing Port (see flight times in the kkday product).
Google Map.
I bought my ticket directly at the Wushih Harbor site to board the island.
Taiwan car rental
（high speed railway station pick up the car）
