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A good strenuous short hike: 1.4 km along a well-maintained trail with a climb of about 200 meters (stone steps), passing through something like the area's natural montane broadleaf forest.
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溪頭大學池
The nature area's most popular (if least natural) point of interest, this is a landscaped pond with a footbridge, surrounded by messy greenery including many tree ferns. Well-suited for unambitious walkers, it's accessible from the entrance by a short walk along a wide paved road or a pretty evergreen forest path.
登山步道
A strenous short hike, climbing 400 m in 1.3 km from where it branches off the Bird Watching Trail to its end near the Observatory, crossing the switchback roads in a couple of places
溪頭銀杏橋
Maybe the most photogenic architectural feature in the nature area - a wooden footbridge in a wavy shape with two humps.
空中走廊
A wooden canopy walk among the cedar trees.
溪頭神木
A massive, old-growth Taiwan Red Cypress tree stood here for thousands of years, standing out as the only remaining natural-growing evergreen conifer tree in the area until it fell in 2016. Today there's a boardwalk that allows to you walk around part of enormous fallen log, which is being allowed to return to nature, covered with thousands of smaller forest understory plants.
鳳凰山北嶺線
For serious hikers: one of several longer treks that can be done from Xitou, this route follows the mountain ridge from the Observatory across several peaks of Pheonix (Fenghuang) Mountain.