.png)
INDEX
The Entrance Area / The Front Waterfall: Swimming, Jumping, and Sliding! / The Big Jump! / Between the Waterfalls / Jinyue Waterfall / The Emergency Exit (Alternative Access Route) / The nitty-gritty (GPS, GPX, and more)
"Here we are in October, and another typhoon is on the way. Who knows what will happen next? The Jinyue Waterfall jump spots are always filling in and getting cleared out."
Introducing this week's adventure:
Jinyue Waterfall (金岳瀑布): Thunder and Wonder in Nan'Ao
High cliff jumps, water slides, azure pools, and a 40 meter waterfall. Nanao's Jinyue Waterfall is a half-day trace that's hard not to love!
*Please note that The Map Room participates in the Amazon Associate Program, and other affiliate programs, and may earn from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you.
The Entrance Area
Jinyue Waterfall! It's one of the most popular, and worthwhile, river traces in northeastern Taiwan - for many, many good reasons! With low, medium, and high cliff jumps, multiple water slides, azure pools, and an incredible 40 meter waterfall all in easy access, it's a prime destination for serious river tracers, families with small children, and anyone in between.
Taiwan, of course, is full of amazing river tracing destinations, but not many offer such a perfect combination of activities for so many different skill levels as the Jinyue Waterfall river tracing route. Don't let that fool you, though - this is definitely a destination worth the time for more advanced and adventurous tracers!
Jinyue Waterfall (金岳瀑布) is located in Yilan's Nanao (台灣，宜蘭，南澳). It is actually two waterfalls, a whole collection of cliff jumps, and several perfect swimming pools, all jam-packed together on the same short stretch of the Lupi River (鹿皮溪).
The river trace is not far from Nanao, in Yilan, and parking is easy and convenient. If you are driving a car, there are several well-maintained parking lots right at the trailhead for only a small fee. If you're on a scooter, though, you're really in luck! Just pass through this yellow barricade (above) to the free parking (below) and you're there!
Once you walk past the scooter parking you will see these stairs.
As soon as you reach the bottom, you will find a nice, sunny swimming area. Locals often bring toddlers and small children here, have barbecues, and so on. Turn left and head upstream for just a few minutes you will get to the first waterfall.
The Front Waterfall: Swimming, Jumping, and Sliding!
Now, first of all, we have to get one thing straight: The name, 'Jinyue Waterfall' is a bit misleading. There are actually two waterfalls on this trace - the front one (smaller, above and below) and the back one (much, MUCH taller - link). The name, 'Jinyue Waterfall' is often used interchangeably for one, the other, or even both, and other names, like Lupi River Big Waterfall (鹿皮溪大瀑布), for the taller, back waterfall) are also floating around out there.
For the purposes of this blog post, I will be referring to the smaller one (above, below) as the Jinyue Front Waterfall (or just the front waterfall), and the back one as the Jinyue Back Waterfall (or the big waterfall).
The front waterfall and swimming pool are tons of fun! You can jump off the waterfall, and it is also a natural water slide. Every time I go there, I end up going over the waterfall at least 10 times!
Of course, you should always check the depth of any jump or slide before going over it for the first time on any given day no matter how many times you've been there before. You never know when something may have washed in - just wait until you see below for a mind-blowing example of that! Waterflow is also very important. Just take a look at these two pictures compared to the ones above. This is what the water flow was like a week or so after a typhoon.
I love sliding down this waterfall (VIDEO), and I do it multiple times each time I visit. For strong swimmers, and those with life jackets, it is generally safe in normal water levels. However, I once personally saw a girl who was unable to swim slide down without a life jacket. Even though conditions were normal, she almost ended up drowning, and I had to pull her out to save her from drowning.
Stories like this are why, despite all the fun, it's important to remember that there have been accidents on this trace, and people have gotten lost, stuck, and even drowned. However, this has usually been because, like the girl above, people did not respect the conditions, did not plan adequately in light of the weather forecast, or made poor decisions, rather than because this trace is particularly dangerous overall.
On another occasion, a whole river tracing tour group needed to be rescued because they went in during high water flow, got caught in rain, and were unable to exit from the back waterfall area. In fact, there is a little-known emergency exit with multiple exits along the trace, so even if you are unfortunate enough to get stuck in the wrong conditions, you should be able to get out without any problems if you know about it.
Despite all of that, this really is a good trace for beginner and intermediate level tracers, and even advanced tracers will have a lot of fun despite how short it is. I know I have been there many times over the years, and I still haven't gotten tired of it!
There are actually not one but two amazing, azure swimming pools at the front waterfall. There is the one below it, and this one (pictured above) just above it. This pool is also a really great example of how much typhoons can change a river in a short time. When I first came here all the way back in 2012 or 2013, not only was this pool deep enough to jump in, but there was a tree to climb up high overtop of it. Ten years later, in summer of 2023, I returned to find that it was almost completely filled in with gravel. Then, in September of 2023, it was back to being deep - though not as deep as 10 years before, with no more tree, and it will keep changing regularly!
Here are two videos of the jump from 2013 - one below, and another that, unfortunately, I can only link to for now because it is in portrait format. It was a great jump, and may come back some day, so take a look at the video!
To get up to the top of the front waterfall, you can either climb up on the left side (faster, but more challenging), or walk up the trail to the right (easier, slightly longer). Just go up where I'm pointing in the picture above!
The Big Jump!
Once you've finished having fun at the front waterfall area, follow the trail for a few minutes up into the forest. You should come to this narrow canyon section in no time. I've had tons of fun doing some of the best jumps in the whole of Nanao here, off this cliff!
Now, if you've been paying attention, you should have noticed that this picture shows the canyon full of rocks. In fact, I took this during summer of 2023, at the same time when the swimming pool above was almost completely filled in. As you can see, it's literally only ankle deep, and it was DEFINITELY not a good idea to jump at that time!
I was disappointed when I heard, and then saw, that the jump spot had been filled in by a typhoon. But, I had seen this before: It wasn't long until another storm came in, cleaned it out, and changed it back to jumpable condition literally overnight! Typhoons can move hundreds, and even thousands, of tons or rocks in a very short amount of time, to say nothing of trees and other debris. That's why you ALWAYS need to check the depth before jumping for the first time on a given day, no matter how many times you've jumped the spot over the years!
Fortunately, as of September of 2023, the canyon section was jumpable again. It offers jumps of different heights, including one I estimate to be over 12 meters high - the highest I have found in the area. Here is another vertical video of the jump, and a bunch of water slides, all the way down to the first waterfall! Then again, here we are in October, and another typhoon is on the way. Who knows what will happen next? The Jinyue Waterfall jump spots are always filling in and getting cleared out.
Between the Waterfalls
Up until the jumping cliff, the entire trace is still suitable for beginners. From there on, while not difficult compared to some other traces, it's best to have at least intermediate level experience and capabilities, or come with someone who is more capable.
The jungle road quickly brings you back to the river just beyond the canyon, and from here on you can either do an intermediate level trace through the beautiful river, or take the very well hidden entrance to the emergency exit, which will let you pass some, or even all, of the trace and get to the Jinyue Big Waterfall / Lupi River Big Wterfall (鹿皮溪大瀑布) much more quickly.
Here are some pictures of the trace in high water conditions. Most times, it's a great trace, but even I was unable to pass some of them with that amount of water flow, so I was really glad to have a way around!
At some points, you can trace right up the river. At other points, you have the option to follow cliffs around more challenging sections if you want.
Jinyue Waterfall
The first view of the back waterfall at Jinyue is guaranteed to amaze. You come around a corner, and suddenly you see it: an incredibly tall waterfall pouring down tens of meters from far above into the river canyon ahead. During normal waterflow, it's a sight to behold. During high waterflow, it's a raging beast, and an absolute force of nature!
You hear the big Jinyue Back Waterfal (or Lupi River Waterfall as it's sometimes called) long before you see it. The closer you get, the louder it becomes.
This is a truly magnificent, and powerful, waterfall! Sometimes the pool is small (like in these pictures); other times, it takes up nearly the entire open area around its base. But no matter what, it is literally earth-shattering, and it always makes an impression!
Here it is during high water flow. It's amazing the difference! Standing there at most times it's already beautiful. But when the water pours out with this much power, it's like standing in the presence of some elemental spirit, thundering and blustering and billowing out enough cold steam to fill the entire area!