Bukhansan National Park

Since I don't have school on Fridays, I decided to take a small excursion to the Bukhansan National Park, which begins on the northern outskirts of Seoul. The subway ride there was pretty lengthy (2 hours), but I nodded off in between, so it wasn't that bad. Once I got out of the subway station, I had to walk for about a kilometer through a maze of restaurants and sporting goods stores. I would've gotten lost if it hadn't been for an ajumma wearing a violently purple and green hiking outfit who I followed to the trail head.

Out of the maze onto the street

The hike was quite pleasant, and the trail was devoid of the crowds usually present on the weekends. I met fewer than ten people going up the mountain. It took me a little over an hour to walk the 3 km trail with about 700 m of elevation gain. Halfway up the mountain, I took a pause to admire a Buddhist temple. It was decorated with hundreds of colored paper lanterns in preparation for Buddha's birthday on Monday.

I also saw a chipmunk!

All the Buddhas!

The temple

They made it nigh impenetrable

The lanterns

Buddha's death?

Skinny Buddha

Golden Buddha

Ceramic Buddha

The ceiling of one of the shrines

Some of the lanterns had prayers attached

The lanterns marked the trail all the way up to the temple

To ascend the last part of the trail to Jaumbong peak, you had to climb up a stretch of rock which would have been impossible to navigate without a railing for most people. Three other foreigners where at the top before me. One of them was from Texas and had gone to high school in Heidelberg! He was an Aggie though, class of '77. Two Korean boys asked to take a picture with us. I felt like a celebrity. :P

That's were I was headed

Ascent to the peak

Tiny ant people

Beautiful view

Sweaty me

Safety railing

... Yeah!

After talking with them for a while, I kept going until I saw a sign that advised against visitors taking the Y-Valley trail since falls often occurred there. But of course I wasn't going to settle for the detour. Let me tell you, that trail was intense. It went almost vertically down then back up again. At points I was basically rappelling down backwards with the aid of the rope railing or pulling myself back up again largely with the strength of my arms. It was quite exhilarating! I took a few pictures, but none of them seemed to capture how steep and narrow the trail was.

Challenge accepted!

Small ascent at the beginning

This is going pretty much straight down

Trying not to fall... :P

Can you see where the trail goes?
Straight up.

That's where I had to climb down

Made it to the other side. No big.

After making it through the Y-Valley, I started to head back down the mountain for food. I found a kitty, a hermitage, and trees wrapped with fly paper.

Meow

It wouldn't let me pet it. :(

Many trees were buzzing...

Built into the cliff face

This monk was holding prayers

A guy carrying food up the mountain to sell

After a delicious meal of cold, spicy mixed noodles, I was heading back to the subway went I saw a sign for the Seoul Iris Garden. Most of the flowers had already bloomed, but nevertheless, it was a restful place. There were quite a few people there including a group of teenagers, a pre-K outing, and plenty of old ladies sleeping, chatting, or eating in the shade. Aaaannd a bunch of flowers.

The mountain in the background

One pink lily

So cute!

Flowers to be planted