This mountain is the highest in Gyeonggi-do (the province surrounding Seoul) and I’d been planning to hike it for a while. It’s close to Unaksan and Yeoninsan national park. The peak, frankly wasn’t that special, as it’s mainly forested, plus the weather was super hazy that day. The streams and forests on the way, however, certainly made up for it.

I got trains from home to Gapyeong station (arriving about 8:30) where I collected my reserved SOCAR for the day. It took me till 10 am to get to the trailhead as it took a while to walk from Gapyeong station to the car collection point, then drive through all the school zones! First, I went to an official car park for the trail but decided it was too far so doubled back and parked on the road by the trailhead. I imagine parking here on weekends would be an issue, but not on a Monday. The entrance is a tarmac road with a few vacation properties on the side. The road starts off next to a nicely built water spot where families can safely wade and play around in the water.

Much farther up the road, it turns to a dirt and rock track and you encounter the first of many water crossings. On the way were some people logging up a hill with some heavy equipment and I passed a log storage area and some stripped hills around. On this part of the trail there were a few views to the green hills up ahead.

In the end I had to cross the stream about seven of eight times; some were easy to get across with stepping stones, while others required a bit of creative scrambling to avoid getting wet feet. In all cases, the streams were lovely and inviting and all nice spots to sit and take a break. One of the earlier ones was next to a pretty tall waterfall and had its own observation deck.

I was looking for a turning on my right an eventually found it at a wide area with lots of larger boulders. It would be a great place to stop for the day actually since the rest of the hike wasn’t that inspiring! Once over the stream for the last time, you start to really go up, along a dirt and sometimes muddy hillside trail. It’s gets steeper as you go and some light scrambling is necessary before it levels out again. It got a little tricky in places and I was quite tired once I got to the top.

At the top, you continue north along a short forested ridge and then you get to the view point at Jungbong. The view point is a raised wooden deck with a stone marker on it. FYI, this isn’t the highest point of Hwaaksan; that peak is being used as a military outpost so this decking spot is as far and as high as you can go on this mountain (for now). Even though I had a 360 degree view, the hazy sky meant poor visibility which was a shame considering the effort I’d put in getting there! It was 13:50 when I got to the view point so I’d been hiking for 3 h 40 minutes! Also FYI, there is another trail heading east from there and it’s the route you take if you drive most of the way up from the other side. On a clearer day, I might do that. On the east side is a parking area which is apparently a good stargazing spot, so if I find myself staying out in this area again, I might check it out.

I followed the same route going down and it only took 2 hours 10 minutes. I was much quick crossing the stream each time returning and got back to the car at about 16:19.

I didn’t have a lot of time to spare before the car was due back so I didn’t do my usual thing of finding a nice cafe to stop at. Instead I got a can of cider at a convenience store opposite Gapyeong station before starting the long train journey back home. All in all, a decent hike and I really enjoyed the stream. However the underwhelming section at the end means I probably won’t hike up there again. There are much prettier and interesting rocky peaks in the surrounding mountains I’d prefer to return to, namely Unaksan and Yeoninsan and (the yet to be visited my me) Myeongjisan.

I actually returned to this trailhead when I hiked Yeoninsan in June that year and stayed in a nearby vacation home (pension).