Seoraksan

This past weekend, my boss, Mr. Park, invited my roommate Jessica and me to join him on a trek to Seoraksan, widely hailed by les habitants as the premier example of natural beauty in (South) Korea. Mr. Park had mentioned the idea of this trip to me during our trip to Shinbulsan earlier, but said that we would have to wait until November after he had completed his exam for a real estate license. As late as Friday, neither Jessica or I knew exactly what we were getting into. Mr. Park informed us as we left work that we should be ready at 5:50 A.M. the next morning so we could hit the road for the six-hour drive North to Seoraksan National Park (quite near the border with North Korea, actually). What we didn't expect was that Mr. Park had also invited several members of his extended family: one younger sister and her husband, three nieces, and three nephews (two of whom are students at Elite). We all piled into a van with very little leg room and settled in for a long ride. About an hour later we stopped for breakfast (gimbap and udon noodles) at a highway rest stop, which was much nicer than any rest stop I've ever seen in the States (it even had a koi pond!). Finally, after several rounds of "Uno" with the children, we arrived in Inju, on the West side of Seoraksan, and so began a series of misadventures. The first trailhead Mr. Park wanted to take had been washed out in the floods this summer, so instead we took a hair-raising bus trip to Baekdamsa














a Buddhist temple that houses a wooden statue of the Buddha that is considered the most outstanding statue of the early 18th century. We intended to hike along the river running alongside the temple, but the children were exhausted, so we headed over to the East side of Seoraksan to take a cable car to the top of one of the epaks. Unfortunately, we arrived to late and the line was too long for us to hope to get on before sunset, so we began what became a three hour search for the condo we were staying in that night. By the time we finally found it, all I wanted to do was sleep.

Sunday was much more successful. We set out for the cable car we had attempted to take the previous day, and even though we arrived relatively early, we couldn't reserve a spot on the ride until 3:00 PM. Mr. Park told me that probably between 30,000 and 50,000 people would pass through this part of the park that day, so it wasn't a big surprise that we would have to wait. So, in the meantime, we decided to hike up Ulsanbawi ("Ulsan Rock").














It's no coincidence that it shares its name with the city I currently reside in. According to legend, the sky God called upon all of the great peaks on the Korean peninsula to come together to form Keumgangsan (in present-day North Korea), thus making it the most beautiful mountain in Korea. Ulsanbawi represented Ulsan, but he was too late in arriving at Keumgangsan to get an ideal spot, so he headed back to Ulsan. However, his heavy weight soon made him tired and instead he decided to rest at his present site because of its prime view of Seoraksan. The trek up to Ulsanbawi itself included climbing one of the sketchiest iron steps/ladders I've ever seen,



















but as you can see for yourself, the view was worth it:














Afterwards, we had to race back down to the cable car














in order to make it in time for our reservation, which we did, just barely. Here are a couple of views from the top of the peak at the cable car's terminus:




























Finally, it was time to head back to Ulsan. We arrived back in Cheonsang around 11:30 PM, just in time to take a shower, hop into bed, and get some rest for another week of teaching. In summation, here are some more pictures from the excursion that I liked. First, a shot of me, Jessica, Mr. Park, his sister, and all of the children:














Second, the gigantic bronze Buddha statue at Shinhungsa, a temple near the cable car route:



















And finally, my favorite photo, a stone pagoda with Seoraksan in the background: