서울둘레길 2.0 Trail 18
– To my Seoul Trail main page.
– To the official Seoul Trail website.
This is the Bukhansan Mountain & Jongno-gu part of the trail and is 7.4km. Below is the link to the route on Naver Maps:
Trail 18: naver.me/FDn3dChC
I did this part of the trail before I officially started the Seoul Trail. I was hiking Bukhansan Dullegil Trail 6. I’d also been up Hyeongjaebong and along part of this route to Bugak Octogan Pavilion (북악팔각정), so the photos here are from a few different dates. This was back in 2023.
I walked this route eastwards from near Bukhansan Eco Park (북한산생태공원). It goes up some steps and slopes into the foothills of Bukhansan Mountain. The trail is sandy and forested. It’s important to look back west occasionally or you’ll miss some great views of the peaks of Jokduribong and a few other photo points. Eventually you’ll go down and out into a residential area called Gugi-dong (구기몽). This area is one of the main access points to Bukhansan trails since it’s quite close to downtown Seoul.
Anyway, follow the trail onto the main road, then turn off into the town of Pyeongchang-dong. It’s a well-to-do area at the base of Bukhansan with lots of lovely big, expensive houses. It’s also home to a few art galleries and cafes. There is only one village bus (마울버스) that goes around here as most people just drive!
There a a few temples along this route. The best one was Yeonhwajeongsa (연화정사). It’s quite small and overlooks Pyeongchang-dong.
There is also a pretty cool art gallery cafe in the area called Cafe di KiMi (). It’s not on the route, but I stopped by because it was close. There’re small galleries in the basement and ground floor, and a terrace upstairs. Worth a visit.
Another cafe is called The Piano. It’s quite special in the cafe building has part of Bukhansan inside, basically a waterfall into the back of the building! Out back is also a lovely big garden with seating looking out to the mountain and back into town. It’s a great place to sit for a few hours. And believe me, after paying 17,000 KRW for a drink, you’ll want to get your money’s worth! I didn’t notice the charge till I was sat in the garden and happened to glance at the receipt; I assumed there’d been a mistake and quickly checked the menu, but yes, that caramel iced latte (in a plastic cup…) really did cost 17,000 won! Keeps out the riff-raff I suppose.
The end of the trail is at the start of the trail that goes to Hyeongjaebong (형제봉), a decent peak on the south side. Anyway, that was my experience of Seoul Trail route 18 as done while hiking sections of the Bukhansan Dullegil, another curated trail you might want to try.