The Kimchi Life: Fall in Seoul & Seoraksan National Park

Okay, so this was written on November 20, but I've just now gotten around to adding pics and posting it:

Fall has all but come and gone here in Korea. The trees are now bare of leaves and we just had our first snow last night. A thunder and lightening snowstorm, no less. Don't think I've ever experienced one of those before. It didn't amount to much accumulation, but coming from sunny Virginia, where our first "snowfall" comes in late December at the earliest, I'm not used to it. I think that means it's going to be a long, cold winter. :(

Stacy and I took a trip to Seoraksan National Park two weekends ago. Seoraksan (san means

mountain, by the way) is supposed to be the most beautiful mountain range in South Korea. It lies along the sea in the extreme northeastern section of South Korea. It's about 4 hours away. Despite the fact that most of the leaves had mostly already fallen off, it was pretty spectacular. We went with Adventure Korea, which is a company that does organized weekend trips geared for foreigners.

The first day we hiked to the top of Ulsan-bawi. It is a pretty easy hike until you get to the last 300 meters or so. Then you have to climb stairs that go straight up the rock face. They are pretty scary. If I were scared of heights I would have never done it. The wind was so strong too! One huge gust came along and suddenly and almost blew me off the mountain! The top of Ulsan-bawi was especially windy and bitterly cold! But true to Korean form, there was a man selling hot coffee at the top.

The view is especially beautiful, though that day it was rather hazy. There are great views of the Sea of Japan (or the East Sea, as it's vehemently called here). It reminded me of just a year ago when I was standing on top of Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park with a very good friend, freezing my butt off in the biting wind, overlooking the ocean.

The next day we went to Inner Seorak, which is merely another part of the park. Ulsan-bawi is the main attraction of the park, so all people stop there. The trail there was crowded. We were the only people on the trail in Inner Seorak, however. This trail was more of a walk through a small gorge. It was very peaceful

and scenery was even more beautiful than the previous day. The pine trees growing out of the granite stones are a typical Asian scene you might have seen in pictures or artwork before.