Deeper Shade Of Seoul

Hiking in Bukhansan

On Sunday RL, Marilynn and I got up early (a feat in itself, really) and went to do some hiking in Bukhansan National Park. If you're looking to check it out don't bother with the Lonely Planet for directions...they went something like this, "Take a bus to this place. Then follow the other hikers." Ummm....right!!! Which bus? What place? How do we know if the other hikers are starting or finishing their hike? It might be a tad awkward if we followed them home!! What you really do is take subway Line 4 (light blue) to Suyu station and then get on bus 130. Once you're there, it seems that pretty much any road you choose will take you to a trail head. We chose the middle road, and it turned out to be pretty sweet. The hike was beautiful and not very crowded, which was nice. I would definitely recommend boots...I wore sneakers and I was definitely sliding (and sometimes falling!) in the sand and loose gravel, especially on the way down. Here's some pics...

Just before you hit the park entrance there is a small Buddhist temple. We didn't get to look inside the temple...being a Sunday morning it was full of people seeking redemtion for whatever sins they had committed over the weekend. I don't have to worry about that stuff since I'm an angel and all...
Anyway, the temple grounds were quite lovely and since you're there anyway it's worth a look around. The actual trail goes directly behind the temple along the fence.












The hike was out and back and took us a few hours including our stop for lunch. Unlike other trails in Korea, there's nowhere to get water so make sure you take some!!

After we finished we had a great time visiting some makolli huts and eating lots of yummy tofu and kimchi. Tried to post pictures of that, but Blogger isn't cooperating. Maybe later...

posted by Jes @ 10:07