Seoraksan National Park

For such a small country, Korea has quite a few national parks.  Seoraksan is probably one of the biggest and most popular parks in the country.  It is located in a small mountain range near the ocean on the north eastern coast, right near North Korea.  

We visited Seoraksan a few weeks ago, figuring it would be a great time to explore the mountains and check out the leaves changing colors.  Apparently a lot of other people had the same idea as us, so the park was pretty packed.  But everything is Korea is always crowded, so it probably wasn't too different than it normally is.  

We spent two days there.  On the first, we did one of the main hikes in the park.  It was about 5 hours or so round trip, but we made some stops and took our time taking photos.  It takes you up to the top of this rocky mountain with great views.  I couldn't believe just how beautiful it was.  We sat at the top and enjoyed the views for quite a while.  I didn't want to leave.  The trail up to the top included over 800 stairs.  The last 3/4 of a mile or so was very steep stairs, drilled into the rock face of the mountain.  Not for those with a fear of heights.  I couldn't believe how many little old ladies made it to the top!

The next day we did a little bit of a shorter hike before we had to catch the bus back to Seoul.  It followed along a beautiful mountain stream and eventually ended up at a small cave.  The stream looked like it once was a big river (and maybe it still flows in the rainy season), but now it was mostly dry.  It was a rocky riverbed, and many of the rocky valleys filled up with beautiful pools of water.  The water was crystal clear with a hint of blue, if it were summer I would have jumped right in.  It looked like the perfect place to enjoy a nice dip in gorgeous scenery.  

The cave that we hiked up to was a very small Buddhist shrine.  The cave was only about 25 feet deep, but was packed with people.  Inside, it had a few small steps that led up to a shrine where, of course, you had to take your shoes off.  High up in the mountains, after hiking for hours, take your shoes off and pray.  

My favorite thing I saw in Seoraksan -besides the incredible views of the rocky peaks- were the Chinese characters carved into giant stones.  We saw them in a couple places, once along the rocky river and another time up in the mountains next to a small temple.  The characters ranged in size from about 8 inches to about 2 feet in size.  They looked really nice set against the great landscapes and the leaves changing color.   

It was a really great trip.  The leaves weren't changing color quite as much as we expected them to, but they still looked amazing.  We enjoyed the mountains as well as the small town of Sokcho that we stayed in.  Took lots of great photos, so check them out here.