Choongnam Geumsan Seodaesan Mountain Hike in Korea- Seodaesan Dream Resort Course

1.     Date and Time : Oct 16, 2018 08:00~13:00 (5 hours including one hour break).

2.     Location : Choobu Myeo (Town), Geumsan-Gun (District), Chungcheongnam-Province

3. Distance and Course : About 10.11km. Course is to start at Seodaesan Dream Resort Parking Lot => Monggol Cheon Junction => Mineral Water Spring => Seodaesan  Tangeumdae Summit (904m Altitude) => Back to the Seodaesan Dream Resort Parking Lot through the Same Ascending Course. Please refer to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jtbmWh4Yf8

4.     Access :

There is several ways to connect “Seoul Express Bus Terminal (”connecting at subway lines No. 3, 7 and 9). Please walk to Central Bus Terminal from the Subway Station taking 5 minutes where you should get on Express Bus bound for Geumsan City, non-stop and taking 2 hours and 30 minutes. When you get off at the Geumsan intercity Bus Terminal, please walk to Eupsamuso Bus Stop taking 2 minutes for 132m. You could get on local bus bound for Gaseonri and get off at in-city bus stop taking 6 minutes for one stop. Please change to city bus bound for Majeon or Saemal and get off at the Seongdang 2ri Bus Stop taking one hour for 30 bus stops. Please refer more details to the “Transportation from Seoul Central Bus Terminal to Seodaesan Dream Resort”. You could simply take reverse course on your way back home. I could estimate total transportation is about 4 hour plus 30 minutes including waiting times for one way which comes total 9 hours for round trip. But you would reduce this transportation time to 7 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.

It's the tallest mountain (904m) in Chungnam, and made up of strange rocks and cliffs.
Seodaesan (Mt.) is a rocky mountain in the shape of cone made of granite. It has thick forests and its steepness provides fun in hiking. On the top, you can see the majestic and gentle mountain range and also Daejeon afar off to the northwest. There are Wonheungsa (Temple), Gaedeoksa (Temple), and many other famous temples and Tangeumdae of Jingnyeo right before the top. And Jangmyeondae, Bukduchilseong bawi (Big Dipper Rock), Sajagul (Lion Cave), Ssalbawi (Rice Rock) can be seen around the ridge between the top and the peak no. 546 to the north. Around the 50-meter-long viaduct upon a canyon are fantastic rocks like Shinseonbawi (the immortal of Taoism Rock) and Byeoseulbawi (Government Official Rock), giving a grand view.
To get to Seodaesan (Mt.), there are two ways. One is going from Majeon on the south of Daejeon to the entrance of Seodaesan (Mt.,) Seongdang-ri, toward Okcheon. The other is going to the 3-corner crossing at the entrance of Seodaesan, along national road no. 37 from Okcheon to Daejeon. Most of the visitors use Daejeon as a starting point of hiking.

6.     Detailed Course Information

     I came over to Seodaesan Dream Resort quite at 08:00 hours in the morning, less than an hour from Gongju Forest Town, lodging where I could start to ascend over the Seodaesan  Mountain this morning. As I parked the car at the Seodaesan Dream Resort Parking Lot, there was nobody requesting me to pay the parking fee because I was there so early in the morning. As soon as Parked the car, I checked hiking course map first and found just left at the climbing stone stair road and learned there were four possible hike course, No 1 through 4. Each Course has each merit and dis-merit like longer or harder or tired and so on. Therefore I finally choose Corse No. 4 tasking into account applicable factors. It was so dense foggy visibility was so poor and nearer that I could see 10m distance clearly. I personally forecasted it would last almost full day. I walked on cornet paved road for about 20 minutes and found Monggolcheon Junction as stated at the course map. I saw Seodaesan Dream Resort Monggolcheon which looks Mongolia Ger in general shape. But I could not see inside arrangement how they arranged inside. It might draw people inrest if they arranged inside conveniently and comfortably with reasonable lodging price. Anyway I  turned left at the junction and continuously working on the same road for 2 to 3 minutes and reached next junction which I could take either Course 1 or 2 at left and 3 or 4 at right and took a right direction road and kept walking on the same concrete paved road and off road for about 10 minutes and reached next junction which I could take either course 3 at left or 4 at right. I took course 4 at right and walked down for a minute or two and found junction guiding to enter into forest road at left and started to walk through forest hike road. I walked on somewhat highly slopped road for about 45 minutes and reached Mineral Water Spring and took a short break, drinking water. I tried to see around view and found I could not see around peaks which were becoming colorful change. But I tried to pick up nearer peaks and took it to picture. As I walked on the similar slopped gravel soil road for about three quarter minutes and found rescue post No 4-7 which we could use in case emergency help. I just kept walking up on a bit steeper road for a quarter minutes and met landmark indicating arrow to Summit Direction. I continuously followed arrow direction for about 10 minutes and reached rescue post No. 4-10 standing at steeper rocky gorge area. I turned right at the post and continued to walk on the highly steep rocky road for about 10 minutes and finally touched down 904m altitude Seodaesan Tangeumdae Summit and looked around view. But I could not see almost anything due to so dense high dust level. So I was just quickly gone through the Summit and found proper place for lunch break and started to descend as soon as finished lunch break and back to the Parking lot after 2 hours descending walk from the Summit. It is my personal conclusion I could hardly understand the reason why NPS (Nation Park Service) include this Seodaesan Mountain in the Korea 100 Mountain. There is neither  particular land scape nor historical background, provably higher elevation. But there are many other higher mountains than this Seodaesan which was not registered at the list.