Seoraksan National Park: Best Adventures for the Whole Family

Seoraksan National Park is such a popular spot that we lost count of the number of people who recommended we visit there in the autumn. A Korean friend described the park to us as having “the most typical” mountains for a quintessential Korean hiking experience. Never ones for passing up a good travel recommendation, we took the 2.5 hour bus ride from Seoul to South Korea’s northeast coast.

Although the park covers more than 150 square miles, its most popular hikes have trailheads at the park’s main entrance, Sogongwon Park. Sokcho is the city closest to this entrance, and local buses from Sokcho drop passengers off at Sogongwon Park.

There’s plenty to see just inside the entrance, including the oldest Zen Temple in the world. If you’re traveling with a family and aren’t up for the crowded, difficult trails, here are the most accessible parts of the park. The easiest trails from this point are the Seoraksan Peak and Biryong Falls.

Sogongwon Park

From the moment you enter Seoraksan National Park, it’s easy to see why Koreans love these mountains. At once rocky and green, sprinkled with orange during this October visit, the imposing peaks tower over the valley in every direction. A wide, boulder-strewn river bed cuts through the park, suggesting that the river must be a sight to behold after a strong rain.

Keep walking past the park entrance, and you will see the Great Bronze Buddha Statue. It was built as a symbol of hope for the reunification of North and South Korea, so it is also known as the Great Unification Buddha or ‘Tongil Daebul.’ The statue is 62-feet tall including its pedestal.

Close to the Great Buddha, you will find a very nice gift shop where you can sit and enjoy a free sample of a locally produced tea.

About a 10-minute walk past the statue and over a bridge takes you to the main buildings of Sinheungsa Temple. This temple is said to be the oldest Zen Temple in the world, dating back to the year 653 CE. It’s worth visiting the temple complex for the views alone, and in addition it has one of the cleanest public restrooms I’ve ever seen!

Seoraksan Peak

Even if you’re not into hiking, there’s a peak at this park for you! A cable car takes you almost to the top of Seoraksan, and a 10-minute walk up a few flights of stairs gets you the rest of the way. Tickets are sold just inside the park entrance for the cable car, which leaves at 5-minute intervals from early morning until sunset.

At the top, you can choose to climb more rocks for a better view over the valley. From this vantage point, it was easy to see that the changing leaves were at their fall peak in mid-October.

We visited this peak once in the morning and once at sunset.

Biryong (Flying Dragon) Falls Trail

This trail begins next to the river, although we were required to divert to the Nature Observation Trail as the path directly next to the river had been washed out during this year’s long monsoon season.

This is about a 5km hike if you can continue to the Towangseong Falls Observatory Course, which unfortunately was closed while we were there because of COVID-19 restrictions. Nevertheless, we were able to see the Biryong Falls, and the trail was perfect for viewing the fall colors.

This trail is not difficult: nearly flat at the start and then giving way to short staircases and sloping paths. As usual with Korean mountain trails, there is some uneven ground, but it was possible to tread slowly, taking plenty of time to soak in the scenery. Rocky terrain and scenic bridges over crystal green pools made for a peaceful walk.

A suspension bridge over a deep gorge provided further views of the pools and some small waterfalls.

The Biryong Falls themselves may not be the most impressive waterfalls most travelers have ever seen, though my guess is they are more active in the summer when the rains have been falling. However, there is a pleasant place to rest on the rocks and look at the water. Some local chipmunks also enjoy this view. One ran straight across my foot while we sat!

The legend of the “Flying Dragon” Falls says that many years ago, villagers were suffering from a drought. They discovered that a dragon was blocking the stream. After they offered a sacrifice to the dragon, it flew up into the sky, allowing the falls to flow again.

This trail was well worth taking for the views along the way, and the fall colors especially were perfect. There also were few crowds in this area, making it a more peaceful place to hike than on the more famous (and somewhat more difficult) trails. But we will talk about those in the next post!

Be sure to catch our next post for photos of more Seoraksan trails, as well as our experience with food and lodging around the park.

You can visit our Flickr page to see more photos of the Seoraksan Peak and the Biryong Falls Trail.