Hello again! Welcome to Dhira the Explorer’s story time. This time it’s about hiking in Taebaeksan!
During the Seoullal holiday, Koreans usually have a get-together with their big family to celebrate the new year. As foreigners whose family is so far away, we might feel sad and lonely during this time. Therefore, my friend and I decided to hike to Taebaeksan to avoid those feelings 🥲. While reading this blog, feel free to listen to the playlist I made, which describes how I feel while hiking this mountain.
Taebaeksan is famous for its beauty during winter. Before COVID, there was always a winter festival in Taebaeksan. This year, the festival made a comeback and we decided to plan our trip. However, when we arrived there, we realized that it was scheduled to start the following weekend. we really are not lucky lol. but I swear it get better!
How to get to Taebaeksan
There are three options to get to Taebaeksan from Seoul: by bus, train, or renting a car. When we planned our trip, since it was a big holiday, the bus tickets sold out quickly and were more expensive, so we decided to take the train. ANYWAY the train was not KTX or even ITX, but 무궁화후 (Mugunghwa-ho), Korail’s slowest tier of trains that stops at a number of towns and villages. We got our tickets for around 15,000KRW and it took us 3.5 hours from Cheongnyangni Station in seoul to Taebaek Station.
On the train, there were a lot of ahjussi and ahjumma already dressed in their hiking outfits, and some young people visiting their families. After we arrived at the station, we felt even sadder because we saw a lot of those young people being welcomed by their parents, and their faces were so happy. I smiled when I saw that but was also sad because I missed my family 😭. Okay, enough with the sob story. Let’s move on to how we got to Taebaeksan.
After we arrived at the station, we bought some snacks first at 편의점(mini market). Then we booked a taxi to go to the Taebaeksan Yuilsa Temple ticket office trail entrance to start the hike. Here is the Naver link: https://naver.me/5jjoqipd
Let the adventure begins!
Taebaeksan Hiking Experience
Unlike Hallasan Park Office, which provides hiking microspikes for winter, there is no park office in Taebaeksan that lends them out. Therefore, I bought two pairs on Coupang (a Korean e-commerce site) for 8,000KRW. Without microspikes, I don’t think we can hike at all since all the roads are covered in snow and are very slippery.
Since we hiked in January, which is one of the coldest months in Korea, I made the mistake of wearing a long padding jacket. As we began hiking, my body started to warm up, and the jacket was too hot and made me sweat, but the cold wind made it uncomfortable. So, the moral of this story is: don’t wear a long padding jacket for hiking!
As we made our way up, the view was breathtaking. I felt like I was in a Twilight movie, heading to Edward Cullen’s house. The trees were beautiful, and everything was stunning, even though I slipped once or twice.
Since my friend has better cardio endurance than me, she would sometimes walk ahead and wait for me to catch up before we continued hiking together. As we were hiking, we saw many ahjussis and ahjummas with their families pass us by. I learned that during Seollal, many Koreans like to hike with their families. It was fascinating to see three generations of family members, including grandparents, parents, and children, hike together.
After hiking for 1.5 hours, I thought we were almost at the summit because I saw a resting post with toilets and seats. However, it turned out that we still had 1.7km to go before reaching the summit, and the trail became much steeper than before.
As we were around 500m from the peak, we could smell the aroma of instant ramen seasoning. Many people were resting and eating their ramen and snacks under the trees beside the trail. We were so hungry but can’t wait to see the peak so, my friend and I planned to eat our ramen at the peak, enjoying the view “eat with a view” that’s what we thought. However, our dumbass didn’t expect the strong winds at the top, and it was so cold that our hot water turned into normal water quickly, causing our ramen to be undercooked. It tasted like yifumie, and yet, it was still good.. or maybe we’re just hungry lol
Anyway, we reached the Janggunbong Peak (alt. 1,567 m) and walked a little bit further, around 500m, to get to the Cheonjedan Altar. We saw some people praying there.
The wind was so strong at the peak, but the view was breathtaking. It was definitely worth it! Here are the pictures! enjoy!!!
As we made our way down, we had to be extra careful not to slip and fall. It was tiring, and we had to take our time carefully making our way down the path.
During the descent, we remembered seeing a man sled down the mountain instead of walking. We had brought our padding and decided to give it a try. We covered our backsides with the padding and started sliding down the mountain.
It was a thrilling and enjoyable experience, and we couldn’t help but laugh as we slid down the mountain.
It took us a total of 4.5 hours to hike up and down the mountain, with 2.5 hours spent going up and 2 hours spent coming down.
As we reached the bottom of the mountain, we ordered a taxi to take us to a dakgalbi restaurant that my friend had recommended. Here’s the Naver link: https://naver.me/FM6DxQUr. If you go to Taebaeksan, you definitely have to try this restaurant! The Taebaek style dakgalbi is different than the normal dakgalbi as it’s more soupy and has a vegetable that originally grows in Taebaek. It’s so good!
We then went to the bus terminal, which was very near to the restaurant. It took us 2 hours to reach Seoul. On the bus we rested peacefully, knowing that we had conquered the mountain in our own unique way. We were exhausted but happy and felt a sense of accomplishment that we would never forget.
Looking back on that experience, we realized that sometimes, it’s the unexpected moments that make a trip truly unforgettable.
Here’re extra videos of us for you to enjoy! 😉
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