My day at Seonunsan Provincial Park began with me almost not going to Seonunsan Provincial Park. The friends who had been planning on coming with me had to cancel at the last minute, so I almost decided to stay in bed and sleep in on my day off. However, I gave myself a pep talk and convinced my extremely sleepy self to get out of bed and go hiking. Looking back, I am so glad I did because I had one of my favorite hiking experiences yet.
Seonunsan Provincial Park is located just a little outside of Gochang, a city about an hour north of Gwangju. I took a bus that left Gwangju around 7 a.m. and arrived in Gochang around 8. The bus ticket to Gochang was only 4,500 ($3.50). Once there, I had to wait about 45 minutes to catch the bus to Seonunsan.
I got to the park around 9 o’clock and was pleasantly surprised by how nice it was. It had the usual Korean restaurants and hiking stores, but also boasted a nice, paved walking trail along a river that led throughout the valley of the park and right to Seonunsa temple. Entrance to the park was 4,000 ($3.10).
First, I checked out the temple. Although they were doing a bit of construction on it, it was still very beautiful and peaceful. There were lots of people in the temple area, but as I backtracked to the trailhead of my hike, there was no one around. Originally, my plan had been to complete the loop in the other direction because I’d seen pictures online about a trail in the park where you had to pull yourself up the mountain with ropes. However, since I was now solo hiking I decided I should probably take the safer option and go the opposite direction, that way I could always turn back if need be.
For the first mile of my hike I think I only saw two other people. It was a bit eerie; I was walking alone in the woods on a very rocky trail that could be very easy to go the wrong way on. But, it was also incredibly peaceful and it was a cool experience to be by myself in the woods.
I eventually reached the ridge and from there I started to see more people while also getting glimpses of the incredible views through the trees. When I reached the first overlook, I was stunned! The view was amazing and you could even see the ocean not too far off in the distance. From one viewpoint I could even hear monks chanting in the temple below.
I hiked along the ridge for maybe another mile or so before going back down into a valley. While I was hiking in the valley, a hiker who was part of a group I’d passed earlier on the trail passed me. I ended up meeting him again while he waited for his group to catch up and he asked if I wanted to hike with them. I agreed since he seemed nice and since we were going the same direction, we’d be hiking basically together anyway.
This hiking group was such a nice group of people! They immediately shared all of their food with me and were just so kind and welcoming. It just proved my hypothesis that hikers are truly the best people around. We ended up hiking the last half of the hike together and I’m glad we did because my solo hiking was getting a bit lonely.
After we ascended from that valley, the views got to be the best of the entire day. We were walking along a ridge with mountains on either side of us. Absolutely breathtaking! We made it to the peak which was only 284 m (931 ft).
We started our way down from the peak and found another temple. I think this was the one I heard the chanting coming from earlier on in the hike. We drank from the fresh temple water, this was my first time doing so, and it was so much better than my now lukewarm water that I’d brought from home.
The rest of the hike was an easy walk along the stream back past Seonunsa temple and to the restaurants by the entrance. All in all, the hike only took about 3.5 hours to complete and that was with a lot of breaks. Once we reached the entrance, the hikers were super kind and invited me to join them for a post hike meal at one of the restaurants, and we enjoyed some bibimbap and raspberry soju. The perfect way to end the day!
Although this hike wasn’t the longest or even the most scenic hikes I’ve done here, it was one of the most memorable because I met some great people along the way. I’m so grateful for those hikers’ kindness and I hope I’ll be able to pay their kindness forward on one of my hikes.
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