Seoraksan Mountains

Sooo... I'm back from my trip to the Seoraksan mountains. I have lots to write about, but since there's so many pictures, maybe I'll just write tidbits here and there...

The bus ride took about 4 hours, and I immediately met several great friends including Paul from Ireland, and Christie from Canada. I talked with them throughout most of the trip, and also went hiking with them on the two days we were at Seoraksan.

We stopped at a few different rest stops on the way, including one that had a wood sculpture shop with "interesting" designs inside, as well as a few wacky ones outside.

We finally got to Seoraksan and at first it was a bit weird, since it had a big gate and it almost seemed like an amusement park, but that thought quickly went away once we started climbing through the mountains. Here I am at the park entrance with the Seoraksan Bear.

And here's another view of the bear


And a bronze statue of Buddah
A stone ornament around the statue

And me posing by Buddah:

Some cool (wooden?) carvings nearby

And some beautiful Korean houses
About one third of the way up or so

And some Korean girls having some fun at the same spot

We were saying to each other "wow, how pretty, I wish we could go up there!"

A bit higher, a tree with the mountains in the back

Quick photo on the way up with Christie and her friend
But oh yeah, we DID go "up there"... here we are climbing up some STEEP stairs
About halfway up the stairs

And at the top

Beautiful mountains by the top

And some flowers
And here we go, climbing down... *much* harder than going up, I think

A view of the mountains with the sun halfway down behind some mist
And now this is on the second day. There was an option of doing a pansy 1 hour or so hike, or getting up at 6am (which me and my two roommates did) and doing another 4 hours of hiking, through inner Seoraksan (the day before was outer, more touristy, Seoraksan).

And here we hae the german bears warning not to... fall off? I tried to follow their advice


And this little guy warning about falling rocks..

Some mountains through the trees
Going up one of the many climbs
Another beautiful view
And me posing for the camera


And you bet the German bears love the Macarena

And we promptly hopped over this "do not pass" sign\
climbed up some ropes, and serious inclines
and got to the peak, of the mountain, with some spectacular views

And a picture of me at the top

Me with Patricia from Canada, Colm from Ireland, and Paul from Ireland

In front of a crazy split tree, almost at the end of the 2nd day of hiking

And some Korean hiking group, warming up by the entrance, and some of the girls in our group joined in their pre-stretch, the girls' post-stretch... Quite entertaining

And that's it for now... I have lots more to write about from the trip, but I'm really hungry, and that took a long time to do, so there you have it, some pix from my amazing Seoraksan trip. The pictures honestly don't do any justice to the beauty of the place, but hopefully it helps give you an idea. I most definitely plan on doing some more Adventure Korea trips in the future.
word.