Trail Challenges at Seoraksan National Park
Our last post detailed our experience of the most accessible trails from the Seoraksan National Park entrance near Sokcho. In this post, we tackle a couple of the more challenging courses. Don’t worry though. As with any good hike, there are tasty food and beverages at the end!
Ulsanbawi Course
Ulsanbawi arguably is the most famous peak at Seoraksan National Park. Its iconic rocky ridge can be seen for miles around. Day-trippers travel nearly three hours from Seoul just to complete this hike.
Unfortunately, because of the heavy monsoon rains this year and the COVID pandemic, we needed to make significant modifications to our hike. The usual place to begin hiking Ulsanbawi is the Heundeulbawi Rock Course, but as it had been heavily damaged in the summer rains, we began the hike on an alternate route: the Ulsanbawi Nature Observation Trail.
We followed the nature trail through the woods and along the riverbed. A small temple along the way was in the midst of its morning ceremony, and some hikers had stopped to participate in the mid-morning chanting.
We started our hike early enough that not too many others were out yet, so it was pretty quiet on the scenic trail. One small group was kind enough to stop and take a photo for us. We were getting closer to the Ulsanbawi Ridge!
A fairly short and easy hike (about an hour) got us to Heundeulbawi Rock, a large boulder on top of another huge boulder that visitors like to try and push for fun. Evidently, a large group together can make the rock move a little, but no one was successful while we were there.
Gyejoam Grotto is just beyond Heundeulbawi Rock. It is a Buddhist hermitage built in 652 CE, basically in the shadow of Ulsanbawi. A small shrine is built right into the rock.
Normally, from this point hikers begin the steep trail leading to the top of the Ulsanbawi Ridge, said to take about another hour of climbing. Unfortunately, here our hike had to end. Just 1km from Ulsanbawi peak, the trail was closed. So disappointing!
We speculate that the park is trying to discourage too many visitors during this time, and closing its most popular trail is probably a good strategy. If you want to see some photos of the peak hike, these guys had better luck, albeit a few years ago.
So – nothing for it but to hike back down! Fortunately, it was a beautiful day and a worthwhile trail even without the peak.
Biseondae Rocks Trail and Geumganggul Cave
Since we were not able to continue on the Ulsanbawi Course, the Bisondae Rocks trail up to the Geumganggul Cave ended up being the most challenging hike of our Seoraksan adventure.
The Bisondae Rocks course starts out as a gently sloping trail, following a rocky stream with cascading pools of blue water called “fairy pools.” The trail was pretty crowded even though we started out early, perhaps unsurprising given the particular beauty of the area.
The quiet beauty of the fairy pools soon gave way to even more awe-inspiring views of rugged peaks beyond the stream bed. From this trail, you can see Hyeongjebong Peak, Seonnyeobong Peak, and Janggunbong Peak.
You could easily stop in this area and continue no further. However, two different courses continue from the Bisondae Trail. The multi-day trek to Daecheongbong Peak begins here, as does the much shorter hike to Geumganggul Cave. We were not doing any overnight hikes on this trip, so off we headed to see the cave.
We began to notice rock climbers as we passed by Janggunbong Peak. Can you see them in the photo above? Also, do you see that dark spot just above the tree line on the lower left side of the cliff face? Yep – that’s where we’re headed: Geumganggul Cave.
It started off innocently enough, albeit a little steep…
We’ve got no photos of one whole section of the hike as it became a steeper, rockier, hands-and-feet-needed scramble.
After the scramble, we encountered the first of the metal staircases, bolted to the side of the cliff face. Climbing the stairs afforded increasingly impressive views across the valley.
We stopped at a viewpoint to catch our breath and enjoy the vantage point without a dizzying staircase to contend with at the same time.
From this point up, we could easily see the rock climbers continuing their trek down the cliff face. Better them than us! We felt plenty high up at this point.
It was a little disconcerting from this angle to notice where we would end up at the top of the climb, but we could tell the views would be even more incredible. Below, you can see the final set of stairs leading to the cave.
The sets of rock and metal stairs leading to the cave were indeed incredibly steep and dizzying. The photos don’t even capture them completely. Taking stairs rather than climbing rocks is arguably a lot safer and easier, but looking down from those heights made them feel a lot less secure! Peter did actually slip on a rock in this area and banged up his elbow pretty badly, a reminder that careful attention is called for on these trails.
Seeing the inside of the cave, however, was well worth it. A small Buddhist shrine inside offers hikers a quiet place to rest and enjoy the views. A monk attends the shrine and assists in making offerings if desired. It’s hard to imagine that he makes this climb up and down the mountain every single day.
Heading back down the trail, we were able to enjoy more fall colors, even more vivid in the afternoon light.
Back on relatively flatter ground near Bisondae Rocks, we found a peaceful place to sit and eat our lunch. Of course, the lunches of the Korean hikers generally put us to shame. They tend to hike in style, with folding chairs, hot noodles, and numerous side dishes in tow. We could only feel envious while eating our peanut butter sandwiches!
As we continued the hike back down, we spent more time stopping to enjoy the “fairy pools,” even more enticing in the afternoon light.
After walking back through Sogongwon Park for sunset, we gratefully returned to our hotel for dinner and a quiet night.
Lodging and Food at Seoraksan National Park
We were glad we chose to stay at the Kensington Stars Hotel, which is by far the closest hotel to the park entrance. We could walk straight in every day, avoiding the enormous traffic jam on the single road into the park. The traffic seemed to be jammed every day from about 9am to 3pm, so walking into the park was a huge benefit. We noticed that a lot of folks coming in from Sokcho would park or get off the bus about a mile before the park entrance, as it was faster to walk than to drive the last mile to the park.
The hotel was very comfortable, with both Western-style and Korean-style rooms. Most staff spoke some English or were willing to put up with our attempts at basic Korean. For reasons I don’t quite understand, the hotel has a British theme, complete with a red double-decker bus parked outside. A little unusual in this setting, but still fun.
The disadvantage of staying near the park is that everything closes at sunset, except the restaurants in the hotel. The food was good, but we paid resort prices for the privilege of eating conveniently. Otherwise, we’d have had to take the local bus into Sokcho each night. The cheapest option was pizza and local beer in the hotel’s bistro, surrounded by Beatles memorabilia!
The next best option was the hotel’s Korean restaurant. A platter of hwe (the Korean version of sashimi) and Korean hotpot seafood stew were excellent. We paid a little more for our food, but we certainly didn’t go hungry!
During the day, eating in the park was easier. We never tried any of the many lunch places as we had packed fruit and sandwiches to carry with us on the trails. However, the tea shop close to the temple entrance had delicious coffees, teas, and snacks, which we enjoyed in the afternoons while soaking in views of the park.
We tried several traditional fruit and herb teas here, served with local honey. We also had more of the icy pumpkin stew and sweet rice cakes. Bonus: everything we ordered was beautifully presented. It’s possible we visited the tea shop every day after hiking… What a way to end each day!
We hope you’ve enjoyed coming along on our trip to Sokcho and Seoraksan National Park. If you missed the previous posts, follow the links above to see the rest of our visit to this area.
For more photos of the Ulsanbawi Course and the Biseondae Rocks Trail with Geumganggul Cave, visit our Flickr page.
