Korean Hiking Signs

Apr 19, 2018

When hiking in Korea, you’ll be bound to come upon various hiking signs warning you of danger, falling rocks, or even of bears. Most of the signs have English translations, but a few are only in Korean. This post is about a few of the signs.

Visiting Hwaak-san (Hwaak Mountain)

Apr 9, 2018

This past Saturday, I hiked Hwaak Mountain, which is located east of Seoul in Gyeonggi-do (Gyeonggi Province). It rises 1468 m, and is the highest peak in Gyeonggido. I wrote an earlier post about “difficult” mountains. Hwaak mountain is one of the difficult mountains, or Ak-san (악산). There are 5 “Ak-san” in Gyeonggi Province, and Hwaak Mountain is the highest one of them.

Difficult (岳) Korean Mountain Hikes

Apr 1, 2018

Korea has many Korean mountains of wide ranging levels of difficulty. If you have hiked a few, you may have noticed that some of the names of mountains have the sound “ak” in them. For example, Seoraksan, also called Seorak Mountain, has “ak” in it. A popular mountain in Seoul is Kwanaksan, or Kwanak Mountain, which also has the sound “ak.”

Inwangsan, Bukaksan, and Seoul City Wall

Mar 24, 2018

Today I visited Inwangsan and Bukaksan again. They are very small mountains in the northern part of Seoul. I visited there a couple of months ago for the first time in January with a local meetup climbing group. This time, the hike was much easier. I guess my hiking exercise is paying off.

Okjeongho Lake (in Imsil) and Carp Island

Feb 19, 2018

Yesterday I went with a local hiking group to a small mountain in Imsil, which is in North Jeolla Province in South Korea. As South Korea is made of about 70% of mountains, there are so many worthy mountains to visit that don’t make the “top 100” or even “top 200” or so lists of mountains in Korea. One of the benefits of visiting some of the smaller mountains is being able to get away from the crowds that often hit the larger, more popular mountains on the weekends.