South Korea – Hiking in Seoraksan National Park

South Korea has a magical countryside that often goes unnoticed by tourists. When I travelled to South Korea, my aim was to visit the smaller towns and nature reserves after staying for a week in Seoul. After a week full of action in Seoul, my next destination was Sokcho, a small city 2-3 hours to the east of Seoul.

Although there is not much to see in this quiet city, it is very close to Seoraksan National Park which is one of the largest national parks in the country. It covers an area of 163 km² and the highest altitude is 1708 metres above sea level.

Upon arriving in Sokcho, I checked in to the only backpackers I found in the city, The House Hostel. A bunk bed in a 4-bed dormitory was affordable for a solo student traveller like me.

It was very cosy and had a homely feel. There were many like-minded travellers and we shared tons of our travel adventures.

One of the best features about this place is that there is a bus stop right in front of the property.

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The night before, I met two lovely backpackers who are expats in China, teaching English. Daria is from Russia while Griffith is from the UK. Coincidentally, it turned out that they have been living in the same neighbourhood for many years and only crossed paths in South Korea! After getting along very well, we decided to do the hike together.

The bus stop was right in front of our hostel and it took us to the entrance of the park in 20 minutes. The entry fee was 3.50 USD.

The statue at the entrance belonged to the main temple in the park called Sinheungsa which was constructed in 653 during the Silla Kingdom. The statue was called the Great Unification Buddha and it symbolizes the wish for Korea to be reunited in the future.

There were several routes for us to follow. The highest peak called Daecheongbong would take us roughly 12 hours excluding the resting time and probably require us to do an overnight stay.

The other popular hike was the Ulsanbawi Rock Hike, 3.8 km long (2 hours). This was considered the most iconic rock formation in the park. So, we decided to take this trail.

After an hour into the hike, we realized that we somehow took a wrong turn and ended up going somewhere completely irrelevant. Panicked and distraught, we decided to take another route by looking at our maps.

The best possibility route was staring at us from afar: Geumganggul Cave. According to our maps, we were only 600 metres away.

After an extremely steep climb of a few hundreds of stairs, we were greeted by an old monk at the entrance of the cave. He was unexpectedly very eager to talk to us, using his translator app to communicate with us.

Then, he offered us freshly brewed herbal tea while we shared with him our snacks.

After sitting with us for 10 minutes, he went inside to play the gong and chant the Buddhist prayer. To be honest, it was a moment of absolute trance for us. The gorgeous view of mountains and lush forests, the soothing sound of the rivers running in the distance, the mystical sound of the monk and the hypnotizing scent of the incense.

Nirvana.

The experience easily found a spot in my top 5 moments of South Korea!

After coming back down the long hike, we stopped by the tea room where we were offered herbal tea for free again, which was the cherry on the cake for us.

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I would definitely recommend Seoraksan National Park to anyone who visits South Korea.

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