Seoraksan National Park

Last Friday was a Korean national holiday (Founder's Day), which meant that we had a long weekend to take advantage of.  I think I had this long weekend marked off in my mind since last spring as the time I wanted to go see Seoraksan National Park.  Why did I want to go there? Just do a quick Google image search and you can see for yourself--Seoraksan is Korea's most famous national park because it's absolutely beautiful.  Seoraksan is located in Gangwondo, a particularly difficult to reach province in the northern part of the country.  Since Seoraksan is difficult to get to from Jeomchon, I knew that is was a trip that required a long weekend.  There's no better time to hike than in the fall, so when it came time to make plans for the long weekend I convinced my friend Tony to come along with me for an adventure to some of Korea's most famous mountains.

Tony had a class Thursday night, so we left Jeomchon at 6:40 AM Friday morning.  My online research told me that buses to Sokcho (the town next to Seoraksan) left from Seoul every 30 minutes.  We thought we would catch a bus around 9-9:30 and arrive in Seoraksan by the early afternoon.  Well, things didn't turn out that way.  We arrived in Seoul around 8:30, but when we went to buy our bus tickets we were told there was nothing available until 11:30.  What?!  Apparently we weren't the only ones planning on going to Seoraksan over the long weekend.

With no other option, we bought the bus tickets and waited around Seoul's Express Bus Terminal until our departure time.

Once we got on the bus it was supposed to be a 2 1/2-3 hour bus ride to Sokcho.  Well, again it didn't work this way.  The traffic leaving Seoul was absolutely horrendous and we moved slowly pretty much the entire time.  In the end, our bus ride was about 5 1/2 hours.  Needless to say, we were happy when we finally arrived in Sokcho.  By that point it was already evening, which killed our original plan to get some hiking in on Friday. Instead, we found a place to stay and got some dinner.  There wasn't a whole lot to do in Sokcho, but we got some food and watched a bit of TV in our room before heading to bed somewhat early.

We woke up bright and early on Saturday morning to head to Seoraksan.  Again, we realized just how many people had the same idea as us to go to Seoraksan over the long weekend because the traffic heading to the park was outrageous, even with the somewhat damp weather.

Once we got to the park there were floods of people, but we kept to our plan to hike Ulsanwabi.  This is one of the most difficult trails in Seoraksan National Park, and while Tony was convinced we HAD to do this trail, I was a bit afraid after reading about it and talking to some friends who had done the same trail in the past.  All I read/heard about was how it was SO steep and scary.  I was also worried because I'm not exactly in the best shape, but Tony is an exercise enthusiast who enjoys running for miles and miles each day.  Throw in the drizzly weather and I was somewhat convinced I was going to die on this trail.

As we made our way to the trail we saw a huge Buddha and a temple, as you come to expect when hiking in Korea.    

Everything is cute in Korea...even monks on signs for temples.

Huge Buddha.

 
We continued on the trail, which in the beginning wasn't bad at all.  The trail got steeper as we continued, and eventually just became stairs.  Lots and lots of stairs.  This actually isn't uncommon when hiking in Korea, but while there are often stairs along trails in Korea, I've never experienced THIS many.  It was exhausting, but I have to say the dozens of reviews I read about this trail set my expectations really high.  When it got tough I kept telling myself (and Tony) that we weren't really at the difficult part yet--that it was going to get even harder and the worst was yet to come.

However, I was shocked when we reached one platform and suddenly we were at the top.  I literally said "Wait....this is the top?! Really? That was it?!"

The trail was difficult and exhausting, but not what I was expecting. It took us just over two hours to get to the top, so it's not the length of the trail that is difficult, it's just the fact that it's really steep for the majority of the time.  However, the view was awesome, even though it was really cloudy.

After resting for a bit at the top (actually there were two different points to go to), we made our way back down.  Although my legs were tired when we go to the top, but the time we got back to the bottom my legs were really shaking.  Since it was only around 1:00 by that point, we had planned on taking the cable car to another part of the mountain.

We saw a long line by the cable cars in the morning, but we figured those people were waiting to go up then.  We thought it worked like a ride--you wait in line then get on the next available one when it's your turn.  Well, once again it wasn't what we expected.  Instead, you had to buy your ticket ahead of time and go back at your assigned time.  Since it was a crazy holiday weekend, by the time we got to the ticket office the day was completely sold out.

With that plan ruined, we decided to go back to Sokcho and see if we could get an earlier bus back to Seoul.  Tony had a paper to write for his grad class, so he needed all the time he could get on Sunday to get some work done.

Luckily, we didn't have to wait long for a bus back to Seoul.  While we thought that surely this time our bus ride would be much shorter, it was just as bad on the way back to Seoul.  Again, it took over five hours from Sokcho to Seoul.  We were less than excited about this, but luckily we didn't have to wait long for a bus back to Jeomchon once we arrived to Seoul.

We arrived back home around 10:30, at which point I stumbled back into my apartment and eagerly jumped into bed.

Overall, this weekend definitely didn't go as I thought it would.  I thought we would have way more time to do more hiking and exploring around the park, but sometimes you just can't plan for these things.  I'm really glad we did get to see some of the park because it was absolutely beautiful. I'm already thinking of returning on another long weekend in the spring.  I would love to Seoraksan again in some sunnier weather and at a time when there are less people!

Songnisan National Park

After returning from Busan I only had two days of school before having a day off on Wednesday for election day.  Megan, Nate, and I opted for hiking on day off, which meant we had a rather early morning.  Our destination was Songnisan National Park in Boeun, so our trip included three different buses. Our travel route went a little like this: Jeomchon-->Sangju-->Boeun-->Songnisan.

At the entrance of Songnisan there was a temple along with a HUGE Buddha statue and a large pagoda.  The pagoda was unlike anything I've seen in Korea, and actually reminded me of something I'd expect to see in China.

Impressive Pagoda.  My first time seeing anything like it in Korea!

After we spent some time at the temple, we began to move towards the trail. However, we didn't know it was going to be such a huge journey just to get to the trail of the mountain.  It took us a considerable amount of time to actually begin hiking, and once we did it was pretty steep.  Nothing kills me while hiking in Korea like the STAIRS that are everywhere on mountains.  Yes, stairs are frequently built along the trails of the mountains, and they're mentally and physically KILLER.

After a while of hiking we found a little temple with a small view.  We met some very friendly Koreans there who we tried to talk to (ok Sarah, really need to crack down on that Korean studying!) They of course shared some snacks with us before they went on their way. 

After that temple we continued for a while. Unfortunately, I was the dead weight in the group by this point.  My pure exhaustion from the past few weeks wasn't really the best foundation for a day of steep Korean hiking.  We didn't have time to get to the top of the mountain because we still had a considerable way to go and we knew it would take quite a while to get down, especially since it was still a little slippery from the rain the night before.  As a result, we turned around and started to make our way down.  I hate hiking and not getting to the top, but sometimes it's just not possible to do everything in one day, especially when you have to work around bus times.

Before catching a bus we got some bibimbap and makgeolli (because you can't hike in Korea without makgeolli!) After catching the three buses back to Jeomchon, we hit the showers and met up with some other Jeomchoners for dinner and ice cream.  Definitely a busy day off from school, but I was happy to see Songnisan.  I hope to be back in the fall to get to the top of the mountain!

Juwangsan National Park

Last weekend I took a trip with a fellow Jeomchoner to Juwangsan National Park.  This park is a few hours away from Jeomchon, so we caught a bus to Andong, then transferred to Cheongsong, the neighboring town on Saturday afternoon.  We arrived in Cheongsong, a VERY small town, in the evening, and shortly after found a place to eat, then found a motel to stay at for the night.  Cheongsong was definitely the smallest town I've stayed in in Korea, and it really made me thankful that I live in Jeomchon where there's more civilization.  I'm not sure how I would have coped with living in a town like that.

Sunday morning was Palm Sunday, so I had requested that we go to church before heading to Juwangsan.  We found a catholic church in town, and headed over around 9, thinking mass would be some time around then.  However, we after waiting for some time, a nun informed us that mass wasn't until 11.  We waited around for a bit and got some coffee, then came back for church.

I don't think that church is used to seeing foreigners, and I kind of got the impression that they'll be talking about our presence for years to come: "Remember that time those foreigners came for Palm Sunday!"  Of course everyone invited us to lunch afterwards (Koreans are generally friendly, but they are EXTRA inviting at churches).  However, we had to get moving to make it to the park so we weren't able to join the lunch with the parishioners.

Such a small, quaint church.

My "palms" I got at church.  Definitely a first. 

We caught a bus to Juwangsan, and got some food before we started our hike.  One thing I love about Korea is all the food options when you're hiking.  There are always tons of places to eat and drink at the beginning of a park, and there are also other small places to eat while you're on trails.  Hiking doesn't really feel like hiking in Korea without makgeolli and pajeon.

The typical Korean hiking food.

We finally got on our way and walked through some beautiful trails.  Junwangsan has some really beautiful rock formations.  It reminded me a bit of the flume back home.  We also saw some lovely waterfalls along the way.

Lovely view.  There were still lots of cherry blossoms in Juwangsan, which made me very happy.  The lanterns that were hung throughout are for Buddha's birthday.  

Beautiful temple.

One of the three waterfalls we saw. 

After enjoying the park for a while, it was time to begin our journey home.  By 8:30 I was back in Jeomchon, and definitely ready for bed!