Gangwondo Hongcheun Palbongsan Climb in Korea- Peak 1 through Peak 8 Course

1.     Date and Time : June 7, 2018 10:00~14:00 (4 hours including break one hours).

2.     Location : Hongcheun at Gangwon Province in Korea.

3. Distance and Course : About 10.57km. Course is to start at Palbongsan Information => Peak 1 => Peak 2 (Highest 327m Altitude) => Peak 3 => Peak 4 => Peak 5 => Peak 6 => Peak 7 => Peak 8 => Hongcheun River => back to Palbongsan Information.

4.     Access :

There is several ways to connect “Dong Seoul Bus Terminal (” by means of subway lines No. 2 at Gangbyun Station) where you should get on Intercity bus line bound for Hongcheun  Intercity Bus Terminal, non-stop and taking one hour and 5 minutes. When you get off at the Hongcheun Terminal, you should walk about one minute for 11m distance to Hongcheun Terminal Bus Stop and change to get on local bus bound for Bangok which takes I hour and 18 minutes for 32 times bus stops passing and get off at Palbongsan Tour Complex Bus Stop. You should walk about 3 minutes for 210 m to Palbongsan Tour Complex from the Bus Stop. Please refer more details to the “Transportation from Dong Seoul Bus Terminal to Palbongsan Tour Complex via Hongcheun Bus Terminal”. You could simply take reverse course on your way back home. But take local Bus bound for Hongcheun Bus Terminal at Palbongsan Bus Terminal at other side of the Palbongsan Road”. I could estimate total transportation is about two hour and thirty minutes which comes total 5 hours for round trip. .. But you would reduce this transportation time to 3 hours for round trip in case you use private car or rent car which you could save two hours for the transportation. 

5.     Overall Remarks.

Palbongsan is located at Palbongri, Seomyeun, and Hongcheun Gun in Gangwon Province in Korea consisting with different shape of each peak from No 1 to 8 which Hongcheun River is twisting. Shape of mountain and rocks are so extraordinary and outstanding that visiting people always leave remarks how small and low mountain, below 500 m altitude could make a visitors amazed with beauty and fantastic. There is a story about Palbongsan which make visitors surprised two times, first beautiful mountain scenery with various mountain shape of looks like colorfully decorated mountain with fantastic fence and Hongcheun River twisting and second so hard and difficult climb course that people could normally bear as they climb higher mountain around 1000m altitude. As seen at the Photo, Hongcheun River are curving along with Palbongsan which give you breath taking amazing when you look down the River from Peak 8. I don’t think any painter could make such so impressive picture which nature could do so. That is why people used to call the Palbongsan as small Geumgangsan (Silver Mountain) in North Korea which is so remarkable beautify looks like decorated with silver stone and jewelry.      

6.     Detailed Course Information

As you see at the “Palbongsan Climb Course”, people normally start to climb from Peak 1 through Peak 8 but you could get down from each valley between peaks in case you want. As soon as I got though Palbongsan information for ticketing, I walked down through under level stairs and started to climb the Peak 1. I was immediately surprised to see steepness of Palbongsan and getting more tough and more higher time by time and spent for about 30 minutes effort and reached junction which I could take a choice, either directly going up to Peak 1 or by pass the Peak 1 and directly moving to peak 2. I should of course take Peak 1 and climbed on steep stairs and rocky path for about 10 minutes and touched down Peak 1 Indication Stone. I then back to previous Junction through rocky path at rock cliff and walked on ridge road for a while and clambered up at Rock Cliff for about 20 minutes and touched down Peak 2. As soon as returned Junction heading to Peak3 through down sharply sloped rock down, I walked and climbed for about 20 minutes and reached Peak 3 Indication Stone and took a nice view of Mountain God Temple at Peak 2 and also succeeded to take so nice view of strange rock at Peak 3 as see at the attached photo herein. There was a Connection Bridge between peak 3 and Peak 4 which I could easily climb. But I had to drop Haesangul (Baby Delivery Cave) before Peak 4 and went down to Haesangul as see at the Photo. There was a story one pregnant woman trying to pass this so narrow and harsh cave and felt delivery signal during her trial to pass the cave and inevitably made delivery at this cave. The people used to say as “more passing through the cave and more chance to succeed individual goal”. I touched down Peak 4 Indication Stone after 15 minutes from Peak 3. I walked on somewhat feared rock and so steep stairs for about 5 minutes from Peak 4 and reached Peak 5 Indication Stone which is closer and nearby. As climbed down on rock and climbed up sharply sloped stairs for about 20 minutes and touched down Peak 6 Indication Stone. When I moved down through risky and harsh rock path and climbed rock path on so steep like nearly vertical for about 20 minutes, I could touch Peak 7 Indication Stone and tried to look around for proper area for lunch pack and found a suitable space for lunch at rocky hill. As soon as finished the lunch, I continued to walk down to valley road between Peak 7 and Peak 8 and climbed on Peak 8 again for about 10 minutes and finally touched down Peak 8 Indication Stone. When look down Hongcheun River at the Peak and felt so nice scenery of Hongcheun River twisting the whole Palbongsan and took it to mobile phone camera. I personally satisfied to see performance of photo with this phone camera, not like previous mobile phone camera. As started to climb down through anchor stairs on rock and steel stairs. They were so deeply sloped that I could hardly get down and only crawling down with supporting rope or pipe as you see at the photo. I crawled down for about 20 minutes and reached Hongcheun River. I finally back to the Palbongsan information after about 15 minutes walking along side Hongcheun River after 4 hours effort.