Bukansan National Park

 

This weekend, I went to Bukansan National Park, within Seoul.  I am unclear as to the total area this national park consumes, but it is very large, and for a $1.60 it's yours to explore.  It's a popular place among both locals and tourists as it is home to some of the best rockclimbing, hiking, and cultural relics such as Bukhansanseong Fortress.  Within the deep valleys you can spot many small temples and hermitages.  Not knowing what I was truly getting myself into, I obliged to go on the 837m hike to the top with some people from the school.

So, from what I thought was the top of the mountain, was actually only about a quarter of the way!  You can already see about half of the entire city of Seoul.

Mid mountain was kind enough to provide a small map to remind you, just in case you forgot, that you were not even close to the top and just how much farther it actually was.

But I still had a smile on my face, despite the fact that trees are almost growing horizontally!

   

I saw more hikers on the trail than I would ever see on a trail back in Canada.  In fact, there was a point where I actually had to stop and wait in a line to get around the next corner as the trail was quickly becoming more technical.  Not that that stopped the 90 year old Korean grandmothers who put us to shame by actually passing us on the trail because we were moving to slow. 

Closer to the top I was beginning to understand just how serious of a "hike" this was.  I would like to call it, "one step from death", but hey, that's just me.

 

 

Onward and upward and finally at the top!  See Seoul in the background! 

 

 

We had to pay our respects to Buddha at the bottom of the mountain.