Hiking Seoraksan, and how Koreans actually hike

Seoraksan is the best known of the parks and the one we put in most itineraries. This is what it is actually like, which routes are worth a day, and what to expect from the crowds in the two weeks everyone wants.

Where it is and how you get there

Seoraksan sits in Gangwon province in the northeast, about 100 miles (160 km) from Seoul. The nearest town is Sokcho, on the coast, which is where we base people: it is a working fishing port with excellent seafood, a good beach and hotels that cost half what the park-gate hotels cost.

Getting there is by express bus, roughly two and a half hours from the Seoul Express Bus Terminal, running frequently through the day, at around $14 to $20. There is no rail line to Sokcho at the time of writing, though a line has been under construction for years and we confirm the current position when it matters to a route.

From Sokcho it is fifteen minutes by local bus or taxi to the Sogongwon park entrance. Park entry is a small fee, and the cable car is separately ticketed and books out in October.

The routes, honestly graded

Elevations are given in feet with metres in brackets, and walking times are the ones Koreans use, which assume a steady pace and short breaks.

Sogongwon and Biseondae, 2 to 3 hours

Nearly flat, along a river gorge, past the big seated bronze Buddha at the entrance and up to the Biseondae rock formation. Paved and boarded most of the way, doable in trainers, doable with children and doable with a stick.

This is the walk we build for people who want the valley without the climb, and it is not a consolation prize. The granite walls above the gorge are the reason people come to Seoraksan in the first place, and you see them properly from the bottom.

The cable car and Gwongeumseong, 1 to 2 hours

The cable car climbs to a saddle at around 2,300 feet (700 m), and from the top station a short, steep, rocky scramble of fifteen to twenty minutes reaches the ruined fortress site at Gwongeumseong with a view down the whole valley.

Worth knowing: the scramble at the top is genuinely rocky and not a boardwalk, so the cable car does not remove the walking entirely. And in the colour weeks the queue for the cable car can run to two hours. We book the timed slot in advance where the system allows it and tell you honestly when it does not.

Ulsanbawi, 4 to 5 hours return

The signature day walk and the one everyone photographs. About 2.5 miles (4 km) each way, climbing to a granite ridge at roughly 2,870 feet (875 m), with the last section a staircase of over 800 metal steps bolted to the rock face.

It is not technical and it is not dangerous. It is relentless. The steps are exposed, they are busy, and going down them is harder on the knees than going up. A reasonably fit person who walks hills at home will find it a good hard morning. A person who does not walk hills at home will find it a long day and will feel it the following day.

The view from the top is the best thing in the park.

Daecheongbong, the summit, 9 to 12 hours

The highest point in the park at 5,604 feet (1,708 m) and the third highest mountain in South Korea. Done in a single very long day from Hangyeryeong pass, or over two days with a night in a mountain shelter.

The shelters are the interesting part. They are basic, bookable in advance through the national park system, and they fill months ahead for autumn weekends. You sleep on a mat in a shared room, bring your own food, and share the space with Korean hikers who will feed you anyway.

We build this for people who genuinely want it and we are honest that the summit is often in cloud. Ulsanbawi on a clear day beats Daecheongbong in fog.

Osaek and the western side, 5 to 7 hours

The quieter approach, from the hot spring village at Osaek on the far side of the ridge. Fewer people, more forest, and a soak in the mineral springs at the end. This is the version we suggest to people who have already done Ulsanbawi or who want to avoid the October crowds without leaving the park.

When to go

The colour timing matters. Seoraksan is the first place in Korea where autumn colour appears, usually around the middle of October, and it comes down the mountain over roughly ten days before moving south. That is about two weeks before Seoul and three or four before the southern parks. A colour-focused trip should travel south through October rather than north, which is set out in South Korea month by month.

The crowds in those two weeks are real and worth stating plainly. Seoraksan in the third week of October is one of the busiest mountains in Asia. The Ulsanbawi staircase becomes a queue, the bus from Sokcho standing room only, and the cable car unbookable. If you want the colour, go on a weekday, start at first light and accept it. If you want the mountain, go in May.

The park also closes sections seasonally for fire risk and for ecological recovery, usually parts of spring and autumn on a rotating basis. We check the current closures before finalising a route rather than discovering them at the gate.

How Koreans hike, and why it matters

You will be out-walked by people thirty years older than you, and this is not a joke about fitness. Hiking in Korea is a mainstream social activity with its own uniform, its own etiquette and its own economy.

The kit is serious: technical jackets, poles, gaiters, gloves, wide-brimmed hats. The pace uphill is steady and unhurried and does not stop. At the top, groups produce shared food, sometimes a great deal of it, and often offer some to strangers, and refusing politely twice before accepting is the correct move.

What this means for you practically:

• The trails are busy from early morning, especially at weekends. Starting at six is normal, not keen.
• Signage gives distances and times, and the times are accurate for a Korean hiking pace. Add twenty to thirty percent if you stop for photographs.
• Toilets and water are available at trailheads and at some shelters, not on the ridges.
• Trail food is easy to buy in Sokcho the night before. Gimbap, boiled eggs, tangerines, and a thermos.
• The mountain restaurants at the park entrance do wild vegetable bibimbap and a mountain-root pancake, and finishing a walk with those is half the point.

Seoraksan against the alternatives

Korea has twenty-two national parks and Seoraksan is not automatically the right one.

Jirisan, in the south, is bigger, quieter, gentler in profile and has the best temple approaches in the country. It is the answer if crowds are the thing you want to avoid, and it needs two nights rather than one. Colour arrives roughly two weeks after Seoraksan.

Bukhansan sits inside Seoul city limits, reachable by subway, and gives you a granite peak and a fortress wall in a half day. For a ten-day first trip with one hiking day in it, this is often the better answer than a three-hour bus each way. That trade is discussed in South Korea in ten days.

Jeju and Hallasan. A 6,388 foot (1,947 metre) volcano with a long, monotonous but not difficult trail to the crater rim, plus the coastal Olle walking routes, which are the best multi-day walking in Korea and a completely different activity.

If you want more than one walking day, the twelve-day hiking Korea route links Seoraksan, Jirisan and the Jeju trails, and how Korea compares with the serious mountain countries in our library is in trekking in Asia compared.

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Keep reading

• Hiking Korea in 12 days
• South Korea month by month
• Trekking in Asia compared
• South Korea: the complete guide
• What we would skip in South Korea

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