宜蘭形勢封閉，宜蘭人從步行嶐嶺古道開始，經日治時期草嶺火車隧道，到現在雪山隧道和蘇花改的快速便利公路，人們的生活因交通改善而改變。
 
草嶺古道為清代宜蘭對外交通要道，以芒草茂盛得名。清朝總兵劉明燈為鎮壓強風及山中瘴厲之氣，分立「虎」字碑及「雄鎮蠻煙」碑。
雪山隧道貫穿雪山山脈，連接宜蘭台北二地。總長12.9公里，為全世界第五、東南亞第一。2006年貫通後，國道五號高速公路全線通車。
宜蘭與花蓮的交通，由清代行船開始，逐步修築完成現行的蘇花公路。此區大南澳變質雜岩的岩性複雜且結構脆弱，使落石頻傳。
南澳的岩層是臺灣最古老的岩石，並有石頭吃石頭的特殊岩象，稱為捕獲岩。
 
The Green Hills of Lanyang / The Geologic Backbone of Yilan
 
Yilan is hemmed in between the Xueshan Mountain Range and the Central Mountain Range. In early times, people made contact with the outside world by wending their way along the ancient mountain roads such as the Longling Historical Trail. Then, in the Japanese Colonial Era, came the Old Caoling Tunnel; now, the Xueshan Tunnel and the Suhua Highway Improvement Project. Improving transport links has changed people’s lives.
 

Yilan’s earliest passage through the Xueshan mountains to the outside was the Longling Historic Trail. In the 19th century, the Caoling Trail opened and it remains a popular hiking trail today. Caoling (“grassy peak”) is named for its lush Silvergrass. Along the trail are two boulders carved with Chinese characters by Liu Ming Deng, Qing Dynasty commander; one translates as “tiger”, the other “boldly quell the violent wind”, in reference to the windy conditions and noxious air that made passage along Caoling dangerous.

The Xueshan Tunnel, which takes its name from the Xueshan Mountain Range through which it runs, connects Taipei to Yilan. At 12.9 kilometers long, it is the fifth longest tunnel in the world and the longest in Southeast Asia. After the tunnel’s completion in 2006, the whole of National Freeway 5 was opened to traffic.

Transport links between Yilan and Hualien began with waterway transportation during the Qing Dynasty. Construction on the Suhua Highway began in the Japanese Colonial Period, and the road has been improved step by step to become what it is today.
This area has the widest distribution of metamorphic complexes, complex lithology and fragile structures in Greater Nan'ao. Rockfalls are commonplace each typhoon season.

The rock formations at Nan'ao are the oldest in Taiwan. Buried deep underground under high temperature and high pressure, this rock exists in a plastic state until it flows upward, cools, and becomes hard. If other rocks fall inside and are wrapped within the plastic igneous rock, they form “xenoliths”, rocks within rocks.