Bukhansan Baegundae Peak: Seoul’s Ultimate Hiking Escapade

It was June, spring was over, and summer just started. The weather is perfect for hiking. It’s not too hot, and there’s still a breeze.

If you ask anyone where to hike in Seoul they will answer BUKHANSAN. I had never been particularly captivated by the idea of hiking Bukhansan, but I finally decided it was time to experience it firsthand. Moreover, my friend from the US was just gonna be in Korea for a while so I guess it’s best if we hike Bukhansan so then we definitely can say “Yes, of course, we’ve hiked in Seoul, We hiked Bukhansan.” Anyways, as always, I’ve curated a playlist that feels like my experience hiking Bukhansan, to accompany you while reading my post.

How to get to Bukhansan

We were going to go through the Bhukansanseong trail

To get there from Incheon: Take Line 1, transfer to Line 5 at Singil Station then get off at the Seodaemun Station, and take bus 704 or 701 this will take you to Bukhansanseong entrance.

Bukhansan Hiking Experience

We start our hike around 9.15 am. When we arrived we see there are already a lot of people there. We walked for about 1 km, and the path was still asphalt. I was a bit confused, would the entire hike be like this, or not? because one of my friends who had previously hiked Bukhansan had warned me to be prepared for numerous rocky trails. And she was right, it turned out that we hadn’t even truly begun yet. As we walked further our asphalt path gradually began to give way to nature’s rocky embrace. A mixture of relief and anticipation stirred within me, realizing okay it’s starting but I’m already running out of breath lol.

During our hike, as always, I was the one who was holding the group back. However, my friend was kind enough to wait for me. We also took a rest twice for snack time. She had just come from Malaysia and brought some snacks “keripik pisang,” to be exact. Being Indonesian and considering the similarities between Indonesian and Malaysian food/snacks, I was delighted to see it. It had been so long since I had eaten keripik pisang. I wish I took a picture of it but I forgot I was just too excited to eat it hahaha

There was a lot of climbing at this point, and since the path was narrow, we had to take turns with people who were hiking down. We had to be really careful. Unfortunately, my friend ended up scratching her knees while climbing the rocks.

When we were almost at the peak, we noticed many people taking a rest. We assumed that these individuals were resting while holding the handrail or waiting their turn to proceed as others hiked down. Consequently, we chose an alternative route that lacked a handrail and hiked past them, following two ahjussi ahead of us. It was only upon reaching the peak that we realized it was a queue to take pictures at the summit, but we were too far up to go back down, as we had unknowingly bypassed the queue, we decided to remain behind the two ahjussi we had been following. Then it was so cute and endearing to see these ahjussi taking turns to photograph each other. Then, I offered to take pictures of the two of them, and in return, they kindly offered to take a photo of us.

It was wonderful at the peak, the view was breathtaking. Indeed, Bukhansan is truly amazing and absolutely worth the effort. It’s no wonder why it’s Seoul’s most famous mountain.

The Hike down

After about 15 minutes into our hike down, we started feeling hungry. Thus, we decided to take a break and indulge in our snacks. I had brought along bananas and chocolate, while my friend had onigiri and chocolate biscuits. During this pause, we also encountered a cat that clearly hates human. The cat began hissing when my friend attempted to approach it.

It took us probably only around 30 to 45 minutes to hike down and reached the Bukhansan UI station (https://naver.me/F5CQlRTK)

Bonus some film pics I took!