Hiking Suraksan 수락산 north to south

This was my first hike up Suraksan (수락산) and it was very pleasant, if a bit scary going down in places. [Update: I go back again in 2020, which you can read about here]

I headed out of Jangam Station and head east and crossed a main road. I saw a grilled chicken place and headed east up the road to get to the main trail. From here you can look west and see the mighty Dobongsan and east to see Suraksan. The light was much better on Dobongsan at this time of day.

There’s a river on the way which you follow, plus some interesting buildings including a Surak Temple (수락사) which had lots of red chilis drying in the sun.

Hiking up was pleasant, if a little hot so kept a steady pace. The trail was quite steep and in places the soil on the rocks was quite treacherous so it was slow going. Hey, but rather up this terrain than down! Once i got through the tree line, there were some great views; the sky was very clear today.

At the peak I got a guy to get a photo of me and then had some lunch. There is an interesting rock formations here and lovely views.

Heading down took me south. There were steps (nice and easy) but then some choices. There were railings that ran down some extremely steep granite and I wasn’t entirely sure of the best way to take. I knew I didn’t want to go to far east so even though I had slowly gone down a stretch of granite (hard going), I opted to head back up and try an alternative route. This was a bit easier and there were some great rocks sitting in the blistering heat.

On the trail out, heading west, I came across a stream with people playing and wading in it, plus a few restaurants. I stopped at a place that sold jeon (전) korean pancake, and had some with a beer.