My departure from Jeju Island is yet another example of the awesomeness that is Korean public transport. An early bus from Seogwipo to the airport in Jeju City, a plane from there to Gwangju, a taxi across town from the airport to the Gwangju bus station, then a bus to Gochang, then another bus to Seonunsan Provincial Park. Once again it sounds very confusing, but once again, it was super easy. Before I talk about Seonunsan, though, here’s a picture of Mt Hallasan on Jeju mocking me again as I left.

Seonunsan Provincial Park

Ok, so on my way to Jeonju I stayed one day in Seonunsan Provincial Park. Finally, I had good weather and was able to enjoy the day. A short walk took me to Seonunsa Temple, which I had all to myself. By the way, every mountain and hill in this country has a temple associated with it in case you haven’t picked up on that. From the temple I hiked up to a huge 15 meter Buddha carving on a cliff face that dates back to somewhere between the 10th and 14th century.

After admiring the giant Buddha I hiked the rest of the way up the mountain and enjoyed an absolutely beautiful day of hiking around the park enjoying the views, including a climb up to Seonunsan Peak. Beautiful! I also had two more nights of not having a clue what I was ordering to eat. In these small locales, there are usually few options for restaurants and no English, so I order by pictures. Sometimes it’s delicious and sometimes it’s just interesting. Ha!

Jeonju

From Seonunsan it was a short bus ride back to Gochang, then a transfer to Jeonju. Jeonju is considered the birthplace of the Josean dynasty since this is where the first king, Yi Seong-gye, and his descendants were born. It’s a very important place to Koreans. I visited the Geonggijeon palace, which was the home of the only surviving portrait of the king, now kept in Seoul. A replica is at the palace now. Also in town is the Pungnamun, the only part of Jeonju’s fortress wall to survive, stranded in a roundabout.

Jeonju has the largest concentration of Hanok, traditional Korean houses, in the whole country. It’s very very touristy, but it makes an ideal base from which to make some day trips to more beautiful mountains for me to hike.

My first day trip, I made my way to Maisan Provincial Park. Mai means “horse ears” and san is “mountain”. Two big, sharp peaks of conglomerate rock were forced up through the ground forming this beautiful view.

I hiked up between the ears and then down the other side to Tapsa Temple where a Buddhist mystic piled up rocks forming well over a hundred pagodas. Only 80 of them still survive, but it makes for a pretty interesting sight. They call him a mystic, but I can’t help thinking he was just a rebellious monk wandering around piling up rocks when he was supposed to be meditating. Haha! After the Temple it was up, over and between the horse ears again and back to Jeonju for some rest.

My last day was the best, though. I made my way to Naejangsan National Park for what is probably the best day of hiking I’ve had on this whole trip. Naejangsan is basically a giant horseshoe shaped ridge with eight peaks. An argument could be made for ten peaks, but two of them I guess are considered too small and didn’t get counted. I skipped the first peak because it would’ve involved too much backtracking, but I made it around the rest of the ridge bouncing from peak to peak for the other nine.

There was anywhere from half a kilometer to a little over a kilometer between each peak. Each involved a short but steep descent followed by a relatively level area through thick, beautiful forest, followed by a short but steep ascent up the next peak. The peaks were also the only places to get good views because of the trees, so it was similar to whack-a-mole, hike along then poke your head up at the next peak for a new perspective. Here’s a collection of “holy crap” selfies at the seven peaks I hiked, Yeonjabong, Naejangbong (the highest), Kkhachibong, Yeonjibong, Manghaebong, Bulchulbong, and Seolaebong.

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It was a very long, but phenomenal day! I went to sleep with a very satisfied grin on my face that night. Jeonju and the surrounding area has been very good to me. The weather has been great, clear skies and warm temps, but not hot, and lots of amazing sights! Here’s a couple more shots of Naejangsan before I head to the next and final stop of my Korean adventure… Stay tuned!

See the pics from Seonunsan, Jeonju, Maisan, and Naejangsan here