Despite the hassles, such as roads that seem perennially busy these days (Taroko is one of those places which it seems almost impossible to admire in solitude, even during the week), Taiwan's grandest, biggest natural attraction exerts an irresistible draw on day-trippers and residents alike which almost magically steers all the attention away from the area's many other sights.

A favorite journey of mine in this area is along route 9, through the East Coast Rift Valley, which eventually goes all the way to Taitung. It's a remarkably soporific landscape for Taiwan - unlike either the built-up, industrialized western planes or the deeply creased, precipitously steep mountain ranges of the island's center.

Here the landscape is flat but little-populated, and laid to rice paddies (producing the famous Chi Shang (池上) rice) at their deepest, emerald-greenest as we cruised through in early June.

The distant, purplish mountains of the central mountain range rise out of the heat haze to the west while on the other side looms the smaller East Coast Mountain Range, surprisingly rugged and impressive despite a highest point that falls short of the 1700 meter-mark.

Devoting a day to following the route between Taitung and Hualien isn't nearly enough to see all it has to offer, so on our last visit we chose a couple of especially interesting sites and enjoyed the fresh air, dead-straight, lightly trafficked road, and distant views while making a mental note to return to some other places on a future trip.

Our main destination for the afternoon, as we headed north from Taitung into Hualien County, can be seen even before leaving the main road and taking the four-kilometer access road to its base.

Visible from the highway as a long, white, silky skein about halfway up the buttress of the East Coastal Mountain Range, Luoshan Waterfall advertises its existence as one of the highest waterfalls along the east coast to all who look to the east a few kilometers north of Fuli (富里); only the remote Xingang Waterfall (新港瀑布) on the far side of the mountain range is taller.

Thankfully, unlike many natural attractions I've visited recently, despite suffering inevitable typhoon damage, Luoshan Waterfall (羅山瀑布) is open for business as usual. In addition, the local council has even turned it, quite justifiably, into an official scenic area, complete with signposts and maps pointing out the varied nearby attractions and curiosities. Leaving the highway at a sign for Luoshan Recreation Area about two kilometers north of Fuli, we followed a side road through a village. After about three kilometers, we took a right turn at a junction beside a plaque indicating the way to Luoshan Mud Volcano

(泥火山). A couple of hundred meters down this narrow lane, a left turn deposited us at a car park beside a pretty, ornamental fish pond, giving fine views of Luoshan Waterfall, high on the mountainside.

Walking around the pond, a short, raised wooden pathway leads away from the pool to the extraordinary and rare mud volcano. The volcano's two main vents continuously ooze thick, bubbling mud, and have inundated a large area of the surrounding scrub-covered countryside, including a telegraph pole now stranded in the midst of the muddy wasteland.

Several smaller vents bubble to the surface in the rice paddies about a kilometer away; the way to them is indicated by signs painted on the road. Especially interesting here, at least for botanists, is a patch of coarse-leaved ferns growing beside one of the mud vents; this species is especially rare, found at only three sites in Taiwan.

Past the junction beside the plaque, the road continues uphill towards the base of the mountains and comes to an end at a parking area after just a couple hundred meters. A raised wooden footpath from here climbs high up the side of the hillside, then leads into the canyon at the bottom of Luoshan Waterfall.

There's a fine, if distant view of the main drop after about ten minutes, but keen explorers can continue, following the foundations of a now dismantled path deeper into the spectacular canyon below the falls, to the base of the lower of the two waterfalls. This one is a baby, falling only about twenty meters.

Above it however, only partly visible from this close-to, the main plunge of Luoshan Waterfall is a white plume a hundred meters high, falling into the depths. Taroko Gorge it may not be, but it's ample reason to head a little further south on your next visit to Hualien County. It's an area with several largely undiscovered yet very impressive attractions.