Bukhansan National Park or ๋ถํ์ฐ๊ตญ๋ฆฝ๊ณต์ in Korean. The word ‘san’ in ‘Bukhansan’ means mountain. Therefore the literal meaning of Bukhansan is “mountains north of the han river”. It is located in Gyeonggido and Seoul. In this article, you will read about the adventures of hiking at Bukhansan.
How to get to Bukhansan ?
To get there from wherever you are is really easy. You should go by train from your destination to ๊ตฌํ๋ฐ์ญ (Gupabal Station) Line 3, and from there you would take a 10 minutes bus to ๋ฐฑํ์ฌ (Baekhwasa stop) or whichever stop your application map recommends you and you should be able to walk straight to the Bukhansan National Park.
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Any admission fees?
Not at all. It’s totally free of charge for a good hike with nature.
When you get there, there will be a little information booth indoors and you will be able to check out the suggested trails. My friends and I took the course at the bottom, the bogukmun course that is supposedly to take 1 hour and 20 minutes up to the top. That’s the easiest course. If you’re a first timer or you’re not as used to hiking, you can start easy with that course. For your information though, the Baekundae Peak, the course at the top, is quite a famous trail in Bukhansan. If you’re someone experienced in hiking and want a little more adventure, that’s the trail for you!
We all wanted to see the little rivers so we took the course at the very left starting from 1, 2, 3 and so on. While we were looking at the map at first and trying to figure out where to go, a kind Korean helped us out & showed us which way to go to and added that it is the easiest course to take. Koreans are so kind you guys! We then proceeded to start our hike. We started at around 1pm.
The total time it took us climbing up and heading back down I would say is around 4-5 hours. We did stop in between for photos and rest, so if you do it non stop you can probably do it faster. The trails start up with easy steps in the beginning but it gets progressively harder as you reach the top, as it starts to get steeper and the rocks you’re steeping on tend to get more challenging. Not to worry though, it is something you can physically handle if you take your time. After all, hikes are all about the adventure right?
We went on the hike in Autumn so the leaves were all orange or yellow or red and it was beautiful. It’s the perfect weather to go for a hike because it is the perfect kind of chilly and you wouldn’t be sweating so much when you reach the top.
As we slowly get to the top, we find this view of Seoul. It was so breathtaking as we’ve never seen Seoul from the top like that, I had to pause and just appreciate the view.
After about 2 hours, we finally reached the top of Bogukmun.
One Pro Tip
pack yourself some snacks and of course enough water. When you reach the top, you will get hungry.
We walked around the fortress wall at the top and took some real nice photos. We also discovered a few people having picnic at the top, that was new.
After a few minutes relaxing up top, it was time for us to head back down. We took the same trail descending down that we took climbing up so it was easy finding our way back. It took us approximately 1 hour plus to get back down at 6pm just before it starts to get darker. Going in the morning would definitely be more ideal.
I hope this article was informative to you. First timers, you know which trail to take. Our trail was pretty easy, so it’s definitely for everyone to challenge.
