Hiking Seoraksan in Autumn – Trail to Biseondae Rock Platform and Geumganggul Cave ( Part 1)

11 November 2014

Our stay at the Kensington Stars Hotel included breakfast. From our breakfast table, we could see the Seoraksan Cable Car in operation and the nice sunny day outside.  Perfect day for hiking on one of the many trails within Seoraksan. My original plan was to do two of the short trails, one in the morning and one in afternoon but we had a late start, so we could only do ONE trail today.

On the way to the Seoraksan National Park, we popped by to take a look at the red London Double Decker bus and then took a short cut through the hotel’s lawn to the entrance of the National Park where we bought our tickets for entry again.

The mandatory “I am in Seoraksan National Park” photo at the entrance. Nice weather on this November day.

Path leading to the Unification Buddha and Sinheungsa temple.

The Unification Buddha under bright autumn sunshine.

The Biseondae Trail starts after this bridge.

After passing by the Unification Buddha and crossing a white stone bridge, we came to the starting point of the Ulsanbawi Trail and the Biseondae Trail. We decided that the Ulsanbawi trail may be too strenuous for us. We were already feeling the effects of our mild exertions yesterday.

We decided on the Biseondae trail where it would take us to the Biseondae Rock about 2.3 km away and supposedly takes around 45 minutes to get there. I think we took longer than that with our leisurely pace and numerous photo stops.
Even the Koreans stopped to admire the red leaves of the trees.




This first 2 km of the trail were mostly flat and level. “A stroll in the park” as the saying goes. Mostly nicely paved road through forested area and nice scenery along the way.

The photo above was what I shot - Stacked stones on the river bed.

The paved road ends after this sign. It was still 0.5 km to the Biseondae Rocks.

Enjoying a break along the trail.

Shortly after the end of the paved road, we came to a clearing with stalls selling food and drinks but it was still too early for lunch.

Rest area with food stalls. Nice place for lunch if needed.

Soju and Makgeolli tempting the hikers.
  Ice on the outside of this ice cream cabinet.

The trail gets slightly rougher and uphill as we approached the Biseondae Rock.

Stone bridge just before arriving at Biseondae Rock.


View from the bridge.

Shortly after, we came to the Biseondae Rock.





Quite a lot of Lee’s names are carved onto the rocks.

Metal walkway with rubber overlay for this part of the trail.

Rest area and restaurant at Biseondae Rock.


Continuing past the rest area, we came to a ranger station after the bridge above.

Huge rock and opportunity to shoot our shadows cast on it from the bridge.

Our shadows, cast on the huge rock below us. We are so small in comparison to the rocks and mountains.

We came to a ranger station where a young ranger told us (via English text on his smartphone) that it is supposedly an hour to climb up from here to the Geumganggul Cave. The trails splits into several trails after the ranger station. We took the trail leading to the cave since this was our objective to begin with. Other paths lead to longer trails within the park.

A signboard showed the inclines of the trails ahead. The Geumganggul Cave is in the middle of the rocky peak, towering above. This was to be the most strenuous part of our hike.  Approximately 30 to 40 degrees gradient.  More about our journey to the cave in Part 2 of this post.

Trip planning: A hike like this at the Seoraksan National Park to Biseondae Rock (without going to the Geumganggul Cave) could be done as a day trip from Seoul too. Check out the Seoraksan National Park One Day Tour. It includes direct round trip transportation from Seoul to Seoraksan National Park, commentaries from English speaking guide.