[Kr] Korea, hiking in Mudeungsan national park

[thedutch]

I searched for (South) Korea in this forum but could not find anything so I thought lets drop some pictures of this magical country.
The Mudeungsan national park lies in the south of Korea next to the city of Gwangju.
The park itself is not that big, but for a long day hike it is just right.
I roughly started hiking on the city outskirts at hiked up to the highest peak of the park at 1187 meters called Cheonwangbong.
At the end of the hike, I was surprised by a Buddhist monastery at the end of the trail.
As the light was brilliant and the photos turned out great, I decided to share some of them with you in this “Forum”.
Anyhow, just have a look and enjoy the photos.



The start of the hike just outside the city of Gwangju



Please translate where I am going?











Gwangju with it´s 1,5 million inhabitants. Most of them live in skyscrapers



Late autumn















Me



Most of South Korea is mountainous like this











Out of Africa?



The view towards the top of mount Cheonwangbong. Not the most beautiful mountain but the rock formations are worth seeing



Still some early snow left



Seoseokdae rock formation, localy known as Crystal folding screen






The top of mount Cheonwangbong. As you can see you will never walk alone in Korea on a beautiful sunny day



We would eat a candy bar and a "dry" piece of bread. Koreans take their full kitchen with them



As you can see we all behave the same way all around the world







Difficult to see on the photo but theses rocks are mighty big











Smile for the foreigner. The main reason for the photo is to have a bit of a feeling for the size of these rocks







Looking back from where I came on the left side. With a good look you can see the rock formations



Jeungsimsa Buddist temple complex about 1200 years old and still a monastery



























Are these little Buddas in the back?








Thanks for watching.

[Flachlandtiroler]

The rock seems to be Basalt, cocluded from the columnar structure. Volcanic

[chinook]

Impressive.
How deep are you in the korean culture? Script? Language?


-chinoook

[Wanderzwerg]

Thank you for this impressive report. I was many times in Korea, but only for business, so its nice to see a completely different side of this country than Seoul.

[thedutch]

Impressive.
How deep are you in the korean culture? Script? Language?


-chinoook

Hi there, not very deep. I am here for business so the time to really dive into Korean culture is missing.
Except for the easy words like hello, good morning, thank you and a few more that is all.
But I am impressed by this facinating country with very friendly people and great food.

[thedutch]

Thank you for this impressive report. I was many times in Korea, but only for business, so its nice to see a completely different side of this country than Seoul.

I do quite a few business trips all around the world. I always try and find some time to do a bit of hiking or trail running. Not always find the time and the (good) weather but most of the time I do manage to do something.

[Robtrek]

Another really great day hike in ROK is up Hallasan volcano on Jeju island. Start (Jan-Feb) in subtropical surroundings, finish 2 km higher up after crossing fairy tale snow forests. Trees are completely covered by snow drifts, no surprise given the ferocious winds. Highly recommended.

[thedutch]

Another really great day hike in ROK is up Hallasan volcano on Jeju island. Highly recommended.

I would love to but I have only got the weekends and winter moved in a few days ago.
But one thing for sure is that ROK has a lot of great hikes.
Maybe I will come back one day with a bit more time to spare. Did you ever post anything on that Hallasan hike?

[MaxD]

Indeed, ROK is offering amazing opportunities for great hikes!
A few years ago, i tried some of them in the Seoul region.
Colourful monasteries and temples are behind every corner and the "hiking infrastructure" is stunning. The northern regions are also littered with military installations like bunkers, trenches and helipads.

As you mentioned, ROK-hikes have nothing in common with solitude outdoor experience.
Just to quote Gerry & the peacemakers: You'll never walk alone. But the Koreans are quite nice people and some of the chats were really memorable.
I would highly recommend to everyone visiting ROK to try some day hikes.

P.S.: Never hike without some of the unbelievable korean pastries in your backpack. This is much better than the kimchi-soup of the mountain huts.

[MLO]

Thanks for showing! 🙏🔝

[Robtrek]

I would love to but I have only got the weekends and winter moved in a few days ago.
But one thing for sure is that ROK has a lot of great hikes.
Maybe I will come back one day with a bit more time to spare. Did you ever post anything on that Hallasan hike?

Good news, all my hikes in Korea were in winter and due to the truly excellent bus and fllght connections, I'd say everything is very well doable as a weekend trip from Seoul. Although Jeju would, of course, warrant a few more days. It's not necessarily so that hiking in Korea means you'll always be part of a crowd, although being part of a crowd IS lots of fun over there (they do bring Schnaps on a hike. )

I didn't get where you're currently based, but in case it's Seoul then allow me to post some pics in your thread to give some ideas for the coming weekend. They show hikes in a NP in the NE close to the sea and the 38th parallel, then some coastal hiking in the South, and the final snowy pics are from the ascent on Jeju. And there is lots a and lots more to be done, the LP guidebook is a decent start if you have 3 weeks to spend in that country. I travelled extensively in Korea and also China, same story there, for example wonderful and rather demanding Great Wall trekking is easily doable as a weekend trip from Beijing and when picking the right wall section, you won't meet other people for the whole day. Unfortunately I never bothered to post something about these countries in this forum.

[thedutch]

Hi Robtrek,
some great pictures of your Korea hikes. If you have some time to spare you should write something about them and share a few more pictures. Anyhow thanks for sharing them.
Would like to do a bit more hiking here but my time frame doesn´t really give me much time.
And yes Koreans like their "schnaps" and like to share with strangers
cheers have a great day