🇰🇷 Seoraksan National Park

A hiker's utopia 3 hours away from Seoul

Seoraksan National Park came up the most often when I was looking for hikes to do in South Korea. I took a day trip here, wanting to make the most of the cooler Korean weather and the incredible countryside I saw some of in Jeju.

I went to the national park with Alice, a girl from London whom I met the day prior. It was easy enough to get buses to the national park, although it required us to book the outward bus ticket via Klook, an intermediary, as the official bus website doesn’t work well for foreigners (which at this point I was used to).

We did the most popular trail first - Ulsanbawi. Similar to what I experienced in Jeju, the trail was really well-maintained, and most of the route entailed going up steps. I thought that I was a quick hiker, but Alice ran ahead. I pride myself on being able to push past physical discomfort, but keeping up with her wasn’t enjoyable at all, so I was happy to stay back and enjoy the hike at my own pace. You never know who you’re going to end up with when you make plans with someone you barely know.

At the end of the trail, you get an amazing view of the granite ridge running across the national park. I can see why people regard this hike so highly.

With the hike taking much less time than anticipated, we did another one to an observatory overlooking a waterfall. A lot of the scenery was similar, with us passing a few traditional Korean buildings on the way.

The views from the observatory were incredible, despite the waterfall having dried up as it hadn’t rained.

At the top, we also had a Korean melon that an older Korean gave us on the trail (I imagine he must’ve felt bad for me wheezing behind Alice) and fed a chipmunk some nuts. The little guy must have rations for the next few months now.