Chiaksan National Park

Welcome, esteemed travelers, to the breathtaking and formidable expanse of Chiaksan National Park. I am delighted to be your guide today as we explore one of the most celebrated and challenging mountainous terrains in the…

As we pass through the main gateway and leave the parking area behind, we enter the Hwangjangmok Forest Path. Until May of two thousand and twenty-three, visitors were required to pay a cultural heritage admission fee to enter…

Emerging from the shaded corridor of the pine forest, we arrive at the expansive and spiritually resonant courtyard of Guryongsa Temple. The temple complex rests comfortably in a natural depression of the mountain, framed by…

Just a short distance beyond the temple grounds, the auditory landscape shifts dramatically. The melodic chanting of the monks fades, replaced by the forceful, dynamic roar of rushing water. …

After approximately forty to fifty minutes of a relatively gentle ascent, covering a distance of about two and a half kilometers from the temple, we arrive at a critical junction in our journey: Seryeon Waterfall. This spot sits…

We have now stepped onto the formidable Sadari Byeongchang-gil, a trail that commands both deep respect and a certain level of infamy among Korean hikers. To truly understand the nature of the path before us, we must examine its…

As we push past the psychological barrier of the one-thousandth step, the character of the Sadari Byeongchang-gil begins to transform. The dense, stifling canopy of the broadleaf forest that defined the lower section gradually…

We have arrived. Standing at an elevation of one thousand two hundred and eighty-eight meters above sea level, you are now atop Birobong, the supreme summit of Chiaksan. …

Having absorbed the spiritual and panoramic majesty of Birobong, it is time to begin our descent. Rather than punishing our knees by returning down the relentless wooden staircases of the Sadari Byeongchang, we shall take the…

As the rugged stones of the valley trail transition back into the smooth, familiar dirt path of the Hwangjangmok forest, our arduous journey draws to a close. We have returned to the environs of the Guryongsa ticket office,…