Naejangsan National Park Take 2

Second time going to this park, thought I’d end up at the same entrance as before, but nope! Not sure how the bus schedule works out here, but we took the same bus and ended up at at the Naejangsan National Park Office and not the Naejangsan National Park Southern Office.

We left Sunday morning on the first bus (8:15) from Gwangju, getting in around 9:15. From the town we walked to the Park Office and paid 3,000 to go in. From there, to the Information Center, past Woohwaejeong Lake, the Cable Car and then the Wooden gate, or Iljmun. From there we went to the Temple of Naejangsa, and up to Wonjeokam and up further to Bulchulbong which is 622 meters. Next was up to Manghaebong (679 meters), down to Yeonjibong (670 meters), up to Kkachibong (717 meters) and then down though Geumseong Valley back to Naejangsa. See below for the map, we followed the purple line.

The buses leave from near the National Park Office (10 minutes away) at 9:40, 12:00, and 4:15.

From the Park to the Naejangsa you will be walking under trees like below and past Woohwajeong Lake which has a pagoda.

The Wooden Gate, or Iljumun, is below and is 10 minutes before Naejangsa temple.

Naejangsa Temple has a 3 story pagoda and many lanterns The next temple, Wonjeokam, was up quite high and had a view, half golden painted Buddha, and a dog!

From there, it took 30 minutes to go .8 kilometers, which should give you a hint as to how difficult it was! Basically stairs the whole way.

The next peaks were 678 meters and 670 meters. Finally, the highest was 717.

The way back was mostly following a river.

Top 5 Posts of 2012

Seeing a lot of these sorts of lists, so I thought I’d make them. Since the blog only started in September on blogger and moved to wordpress in November, I thought it fitting to do only the top 5.

1) International Gift and Household Fair

2) Everland: Christmas Fantasy

3) Gwangju

4) Seoul’s 5 Palaces

5) Naejangsan National Park

 

Naejangsan National Park

I went to Naejangsan National Park after a visit in Gwangju. We unknowingly went up one of the higher peaks–722 meters! When you go in at Baegyangsa–where the bus from Gwangju drops you–there is a little uninhabited village at the very bottom.

After a bit of flat walking you will come to Baegyangsa temple which is really big! Pretty nice too as there are only 2 places selling touristy things. There is a beautiful walk from the starting village to the temple along a river which you end up following up to the start of the hike (not the Cheonjinam Temple part, the Yaksaam Temple part).

The walk up to Yaksaam temple is incredibly steep, but on our way up we saw some older people coming down so I figured I had to push on no matter what! Also saw some monks coming down who looked like they did that walk everyday of their life.

After that is the Yeongcheongu Cave, which has a buddha in it and some candles which you should pay for.

Next is another steep hike filled with helpful stairs to Baekhakbong Peak. Beautiful views from the top, even when it is a bit cloudy.

After that we headed down into a valley and back along the river. We had run out of water and my companions did not bring any food so we could not go on to the Helliport, second peak and waterfall. The plan is to come back in spring and go straight for the waterfall!