I hiked from the west entrance of Mudeungsan National Park for an all day hike to Ipseokdae and Seoseokdae columnar rocks. This was still day 4 of a four-day trip to Haenam and Gwangju.
The bus was full of commuters that time of the morning. It took about thirty minutes to get to the park entrance and I got there at about 8:40. There were lots of hiking shops and restaurants in the area. I took the tarmac road up to the trail entrance. A national park sign and characters welcomed me in! Parts of the road were next to a stream and the morning light was beautiful. There was a museum and a temple on the way, too, but I didn’t stop. Eventually, the off-road trail starts up some rocky steps. You pass a very old tree and then into more forest.
It’s a relatively gentle incline up a rocky forest path and then you enter Jungmeorijae (중머리재) ,the first main rest stop and view point. There is shelter, no trees, and views across grassland into the valley. To your left are hills where the trails lead. There’s a stone marker, too. I had my first food there looking over the grassy view.
From here, I decided to go clockwise around my planned loop that would take me to the main rock features of the trail; I figured easier going up steep, and coming down gentle! The path head into more forest but is mainly well-maintained rocky trail and grass. There are plenty of view points looking back to the rest stop I was at earlier. From here, you also start to see a lot more of the rocks formations this mountain is known for.
When you get to Jungbong (중봉), you can see far and wide; down to where you came from, across the hill to radio towers, parts of Gwangju, and grassy plains on the way to my destination. The next section is through lovely grassy plains.
After the grassy plain, you hit a road that serves the military bases up here. You cross the road then go up through more forest until you find some Seoseokdae (서석대).
Next, I headed towards Ipseokdae; this was going to be the end of the loop. On the way, I went to Inwangbong (인왕봉), a peak shared with some army facilities. A boardwalk trail was being constructed with some kind of turnstile entrance. Also, up the steps, the righthand side was blocked with walls with signs telling people not to take photos! The walls of course obstructed the view in one direction but the view the other way was fine!
After this offshoot, you head back the way you came, then onwards to the Ipseokdae area.
There are good view points to get close to the rocks, and they look pretty neat close up. Obviously, I was getting tired of taking photos! Further down, you get to another large rest area near some either army or telecommunication facilities. This the spot where most people take photos of the distant Ipseokdae rock. I, however, just took a rest and ate my second lot of sandwiches.
From there, it was more along, and gently down until I completed the loop at my first rest stop area. Then I continued on the way I’d come up down to the entrance.
It was before 15:00, so I’d made pretty good time. I dropped by the Fjallraven store, but there was nothing on sale. I considered getting food around here, but was still undecided about whether I’d be staying the night, or heading back to Seoul to meet Romana. For that reason, I got the next bus back to my hotel, showered and packed, just to be ready to. I’d booked a ticket to Seoul the day before (because Fridays can be busy; the cool thing about KTX is that you can cancel easily with minimum fuss and fees). I went to Penguin Dang Cafe (펭귄당) with my laptop to search for inspiration, but in the end decided to head back to Seoul!
Places visited this Gwangju trip