If you’ve done any research on Taipei on Instagram, you’ll have seen pictures of Elephant Mountain (even if you’re not aware of it’s name yet and just think of it as the Taipei viewpoint place). Elephant Mountain (also known as its official name Xiangshan Hiking Trail) is the name given to the spot that holds one of the best views in Taipei, stretching across the Taiwan city and incorporating Taipei’s famous Taipei 101 building. While there are dedicated lookouts, the most Instagrammable spot at Elephant Mountain is a top a large boulder and if you read on you’ll discover exactly where to find the boulder and get your own photo at Taipei’s Instagram famous view.
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Suggested read: The most Instagrammable locations in Taipei, Taiwan
How to get to Elephant Mountain via the metro
Unless you’re staying in walking distance, you’ll want to catch the Taipei metro to the closest metro stop to the Elephant Mountain trail which is Xiangshan. When I visited Elephant Mountain, I was staying near the Taipei Main Station and it was about 15 minutes for me on the Tamsui-Xinyi Line line, which was easy to do. The Taipei metro is definitely a bit behind the times technology wise with payments so if you need help (or at least to follow the way I got around) see here: Cash or EasyCard? How to use the Taipei metro for short visits. Once you’ve arrived at the Xiangshan Metro Station, you want to take Exit 2. As Elephant Mountain is a popular tourist spot in Taipei, you’ll likely see signs (with its official name) telling you what exit to take like this one below.
How to get to Elephant Mountain from the Xiangshan Metro Station.
Once you’re out of the metro and on ground level, keep your eye out for street signs saying Xiangshan Hiking Trail (its official name), but if you don’t see any you want to head along the road next to Xiangshan Park, with the park on the left of you as you walk.
The easiest way to make sure you’re on track to Elephant Mountain is to have a working phone sim. I used Airalo while I was in Taiwan which gave me $7USD for 1GB of data. While this is pricy for what you get, I used it mainly for Google Maps in situation like this and it gave me peace of mind I wasn’t going to get lost in Taipei. You can buy your Airalo esim here. You can also find the starting point for the Elephant Mountain hiking trail on Google Maps here. Follow Google Maps and you’ll see as you head to the end of the road, you turn left and then right and continue the road around. You’ll see this house and driveway – don’t walk up it.
Instead turn to your right and you’ll see this road.
Walk along the road until you see this building on your right.
And then on your left directly opposite that building is the start of the Elephant Mountain walk. It’s very obvious and the stairway railings have little elephants on them!
The Elephant Mountain hike
Begin the Elephant Mountain hike by climbing these stairs but be very careful as the stairs are very steep. It is also slightly annoying to walk on the stairs as, while the overall path is steep, each step is quite short meaning you’ll need to take little steps or take the stairs two at a time (which is a bit tiring!)
After a short time climbing, you’ll come to a fork in the path, which will take you to other hiking trails other than the Instagrammable Elephant Mountain viewpoint. Here you want to keep right. Helpfully, the Elephant Mountain trail has elephant patterns on the railing as you ascend which makes it easier to know you’re on the right path.
Throughout your hike you will also see signs showing you how far along the Elephant Mountain walk you are, which is really helpful for pacing yourself.
There are a number of official Elephant Mountain lookouts along the trail. In addition to the Instagrammable Elephant Mountain viewpoint (the one situated on top of a boulder), I stopped at two of the official lookouts. Sadly, I had a pretty miserable day (more on this below) so I didn’t actually continue all the way to the top of Elephant Mountain but I was very happy with the three different spots I did stop at.
Where to find the Elephant Mountain Instagrammable Spot
Okay, so we know about how to find and get up the hike – where is the actual Instagram famous Elephant Mountain photo spot? After passing by the first official lookout and before you reach the second official lookout (more on these lookouts below), you’ll come across a number of large boulders on your right. They’re impossible to miss as the path goes right beside them (and it looks like the path was actually cut into them).
These boulders are your Elephant Mountain Instagram famous spot. There are two main boulders, one where you sit and another where you can put your camera (or photographer!) to snap the photo. I had done my research prior to the hike and knew that there were two boulders that you can use for this purpose but as I was travelling by myself and wasn’t sure of the state of the second boulder, a small part of me was hoping there would be a number of people there so I could ask someone to take my photo for me in case my tripod couldn’t securely stand on the second boulder. Luckily, I found that the second boulder was large enough and flat enough that my camera and tripod were fine – and then I ended up being very happy that there was no one else wanting a photo here because it meant I could stay here for as long as I pleased!
Note, the boulders are quite smooth but there are small ledge like holes in the boulders you can use to climb up – just be careful, they are very smooth which does make them a bit slippery and you need to have full concentration as you climb up and down. The second boulder where you put your camera is harder than the front boulder to climb due to its smoothness but both require concentration.
Other Elephant Mountain Lookouts
As I mentioned above, in addition to the Elephant Mountain Instagrammable Photo Spot, I stopped at the first and second official Elephant Mountain lookouts, with the first lookout actually being my favourite Elephant Mountain photo spot out of all three. The second one is better for zoom scale shots of Taipei 101, whereas the first lookout showcased the surrounding scenery very well.
First Lookout
Second Lookout
Please note, the weather can be different to what is forecasted
As also mentioned above, I didn’t continue to the top of Elephant Mountain after stopping at the first two official lookouts and the Elephant Mountain Instagrammable photo spot. This was because the weather was really gloomy and cloudy. This was actually a surprise to me when I arrived in the area as I had chosen this day to climb Elephant Mountain due to the clear, sunny forecast for the day. Due to being slightly higher up and surrounded by greenery, Elephant Mountain appears to attract more cloud and a Taiwan local told me later that often Elephant Mountain can take a little longer in the day to become clear even if there are clear conditions down below. I did eventually get shots that I was happy with, but I would’ve been happier with clearer conditions – they also took a fair bit of patience for the cloud coverage to break and to snap what I could.
Best time to visit Elephant Mountain hike
I can only talk about when I went, but I would say the best time to visit Elephant Mountain depends on what you want. I believe that sunset is one of the most beautiful times to enjoy the view, but with sunsets also comes crowds. When I visited in the early morning (arriving at 730am) there seemed to only be locals using the trail for exercise and it meant that the popular Instagram spot wasn’t busy like I’ve read online it can be – however, the drawback for me was that earlier in the day seemed to experience more cloud coverage that may have otherwise subsided later in the day.
Is it hard?
Yes and no. I found that due to its steepness and slipperiness in parts during wet conditions, it took a lot of concentration, especially when heading downhill. However, it is quite short (or at least the part that I did that includes the Instagrammable photo spot). I walked from the beginning of the trail to the second lookout in 15 minutes (I went to the second lookout first then headed back down to the Instagrammable spot and the first lookout) and a lot of people, young and older, were managing it just fine. It is very steep though so it will test your fitness abilities, but in terms of it being difficult – I would say just be careful and know your own abilities and stop if it is too much. But otherwise, enjoy the trail and enjoy the Instagram famous views from Elephant Mountain!
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