Bukhansan: fortress entrance > Uisangbong > Guknyeongsa > Bukhancheon

북한산성입구 > 의상봉 > 국녕사 > 북한천 > 북한산성입구

This is roughly the route I took; I followed the river a bit more on my way out. Thanks to whoever made it on AllTrails:

I started around 12:40 at Bukhansanseong mountain fortress entrance (북한산성입구), went east to Uisangbong peak (의상봉), then down north to Guknyeongsa (or Gugnyeongsa) temple (국녕서) and along the Bukhancheon stream (북한천) back to where I entered, finishing around 15:40. It can be done a lot quicker, but I made a few exploratory detours. Maybe two hours if you know exactly where to go; I will next time!

The Bukhansanseong Fortress entrance is a well developed national park entrance with parking, restaurants and hiking shops.

The trail starts well paved and to be honest I don’t know where it goes; I’ll save that for another time! I took a side trail into the trees towards Bukhansanseong fortress on my map app. I figured this would take me to the fortress wall and I’d decide where to go from there.

Once through through the forest, it got rocky pretty quick, and quite steep. There were lots of places which would have required hard scrambling and climbing if there hadn’t been steel poles and cables in the rock. Usually these installations(?) are few and far between on the mountains I’ve done in Korea, but today, there were lots on account of the difficulty. Can I say difficulty? It’s a lot less difficult with these cables to hold on to, but it is still hard work and a bit scary in places (bare in mind, I’m not the best with heights) and I knew this was the kind of ascent I wouldn’t be going down!

There are a few places where I though that I must be at the top of this peak, but it kept on going. There were a few interesting features and a great view back where I could see the entrance of the park far below.

Video clips on the way to the peak, plus from one of the major stopping points. The rest of the video is of a part of the stream heading back, and an area by the bus stop at the entrance to the park:

I finally got to the top and there were quite a few people there who had probably come from different directions. I went around to my left and down and to the place on my map app that said it was the fortress; it was actually a small fortress gate. From here I could go on a ridge hike east and south to place I’d already been to and this would have taken the rest of the day; I didn’t fancy that so looked around a bit to decide what to do. I opted to go north down to a temple or two and to the stream that would take me back to where I started.

It was fairly easy going down and I soon got to a cool temple called Gugnyeongsa (국녕사). It had a massive statue which you can see from behind as you head down. It was in an impressive place surrounded by thousands of small golden Buddha statues. The bid statue was facing one of the best views of the area; lucky him!

Down some more and to the stream of Bukhancheon (북한천) which turned out to be extremely pleasant. There were a lot of trails down here and I’ll definitely come back to try some more out.

I followed the stream back and marvelled and the huge rocks and boulders in the stream bed. I also passed the two sides of what was once a water gate, a fortified bridge that would have been over the river. Gone now but there was a picture.

Back at the park entrance, I noted the myriad hiking shops for later then had a coffee at Maruni coffee (마루니) at a table with a great view of Nogosan (노고산?). While waiting for my bus after, I went to another stream and saw some more nice Autumn views with a different mountain in the background.