Hiking Jirisan mountain to Cheonwangbong peak

This was the second day of my 5-day trip to the Jirisan area. I spent most of the day on Jirisan Mountain getting to the main peak and back.

Jirisan mountain has been on my hiking list for a few years now and I’d heard it can be quite tough on account of the distances; it’s the largest national park in Korea, and it’s way down south. It’s also home to the tallest peak on the South Korean mainland at 1,918 metres (Hallasan on Jeju is a little taller). For those reasons, it’s taken a while to actually get there!

Planning

A lot of the trails are meant to be overnight or even two nights, staying at the mountain shelters. I contemplated a few route plans, researching other blogs. In the end I chose a loop that would get me to the tallest peak (Cheonwangbong 천왕봉) and back in one day. However, this was still estimated to take between 9 to 12 hours depending on who you asked! One reason I didn’t do the overnight is simply because I didn’t want to carry food for two days! I chose the village of Jungsan-ri on the south east side as my base and booked two nights at Jirisan Big Tree Guesthouse (Jirisan Keun Namu – 지리산큰나무). I didn’t want to tire myself out or have to rush so it’d have to be a very early start and I’d need enough food (I’d bought a foot-long sub at Subway the day before for this hike, and had plenty of hiking snacks).

Hiking

I was up at 4:14 I think, still very dark and made my final preparations (breakfast and restroom!). Then I drove about a kilometre to the carpark, parked up and set off. It was just beginning to get light at that point (about 6?) and I walked about 20 minutes from the carpark to the entrance of the trail. In the trees, however, I couldn’t see anything! I used the light on my phone (head torch was back in Seoul) to keep going until I could see well enough. I got my first glimpse of the mountain views through some trees a bit later on. The trail was mainly rock steps and earth at this point.

This trail was a loop that passed a temple and two shelters. I decided to go anti-clockwise since I think I do better going up steep inclines than down and this direction meant a less steep descent. The first intersection was just past a rope bridge. From there, it was quite a straight forward hike up to the first shelter and Beopgyesa Temple (법계사). The temple was very pretty with a few buildings amongst boulders and trees. There were views all the way down into the valley. It was bathed in the autumn morning light.

From here, it was a tough but not technically difficult hike to the main peak. The peak is a sort of huge rocky dome-shaped mound perched on top of the mountain. There were about three of four other hiking groups there and someone took some photos of me (and other people, too; maybe feeling guilty for hogging the photo zone for so long?!). Great views of the park all around and into the distance. Also, it was extremely cold up on the peak being exposed to lots of icy wind! I made my way off the mound, and to a more sheltered area to eat the first half of my Subway sub (note to self: DON’T get wet vegetables in your sandwich! Soggy bread is no one’s friend!).

I now had a short ridge hike before the next intersection at another shelter, before taking the trail back south to the start. Up here, there were very few trees and lots of grass. There were also a few dead trees looking bleakly pretty amongst it all, plus more views all around.

At the intersection is a larger shelter. This area was quite wide and flat and used to be a market area back in the olden days! People from the north and south would meet here for trade and hanging out. I imagine there were probably more shelters and lodgings up here back then, as I can’t imagine people would view that distance as a daily commute! I had a lie down on one of the benches in the picnic area and ate some food. I was feeling quite tired then but fortunately it was still quite early (before 12?). The shelters were quite large, with a big eating area in one of the buildings. It had a few floors built down the slope, and I could see parts of it were built with old-looking stone. I wonder how old it is?

I then started the loooong walk down. Mainly stone steps and relatively easy, but quite hard on the knees. I was leaning a lot on my trekking pole! It was beautiful though. Back into the trees and then a valley. There was a large dry river area with big boulders and lots of stacked stones; perhaps these started as trail markers because the area was so wide, it might be difficult to find a trail. It seems like plenty of people had added their own stone stacks too! The result was something quite surreal looking!

Then more downhill walking and forest, some running streams and over a rope bridge then the rope bridge I’d passed on the way up. I got to the car, quite knackered frankly, but happy with the time I’d made. I parked back at the guesthouse, showered and took a quick rest. I grabbed a beer and the second half of my sub and sat on the terrace in the sun. Later, I wandered around the village and took some photos. I didn’t bother with more food since I’d eaten enough. When it got darker, I watched some Netflix and had an early night.