Seoraksan National Park

Friday (not last Friday, the Friday before...I'm behind...) was field trip day. It felt kind of odd to have one so early in the month but I guess that’s just the way it goes. This time our trip was to an indoor playground and basically involved the kids running around and playing for a few hours with the teachers joining in here and there. It was pretty relaxing (the trip itself, not the transportation to and from the facility which consisted of me babysitting 7 bickering, crying, and overall misbehaving children).

Not convinced this thing isn't picking it's nose...

The playground was located inside a mall, and had a bunch of different areas…there was a jungle gym, “sand” box (with barley), ball pit, and this huge inflated air-thing that kids just loooved. It was pretty cute and the kids seemed to enjoy it.

Luckily, because of the trip, Friday passed fairly fast. I love the weekend!

Part of Seoraksan National Park

On Saturday, Jenee and I left early in the morning to join up with an Adventure Korea group heading to Seoraksan National Park. We’ve traveled with Adventure Korea before, so this makes our second trip with them and it was (mostly) a success.

The bus ride was a bit long (about three and a half hours) but we stopped once at a rest stop and then again near the park for lunch at an all-you-can-eat bibimbap restaurant.

Once we got to the mountain, the weather was a bit disappointing, overcast skies threatening rain…though I suppose it could have actually been raining which would have been worse.

The leaves on the trees were, as I feared, mostly gone but we were able to still see some great contrasting colors especially near the base of the park.

Our first course was a hike to a waterfall. It was the “easy” course but still involved some good exercise. This seems to be the case anywhere there is “nature” in Korea because it’s such a mountainous country with lots, and lots, and loooots of rocks. It’s so different from the mountains we have back home where I’m from (the North West) but kind of reminds me a bit of the area I visited in Wyoming (although there are more trees here).

 

Yup. That's the waterfall.

Anyway, we successfully made it to the waterfall and while it was a pretty sight it’s doesn’t have anything on my Multnomah Falls back home. Oh, well. Still very nice!!

As we were heading back, I was talking to this older guy in our group from Australia and he was one of those people who has been everywhere and has some great stories to tell so that was quite an experience. Jenee also talked with one of the ladies in our group who happens to go to the same church and same service as us but we’d never met before. South Korea really is a small sometimes.

Once we made it back to the main area we had some time before it was our turn on the cable car (which would take us up the mountain) so we explored a bit of the area. There was a huge statue of Buddha and a temple. Lots of people were out and about but it was nice to get to see some of the great fall colors that weren’t really present anymore further up the mountain.  

After exploring for a bit it was finally time for our trip in the cable car. Everyone gathered inside and headed up the short, very steep journey to the sound of Kelly Clarkson singing "Because of You" (why this music was playing I have no idea but we all thought it was hilarious). 

The view was nice but all the trees had lost their leaves up there and it also started to rain. So, we went inside the little cafe/restaurant area and ate our favorite winter snack: hoddeok before it was time to go back down. 

We gathered back up with the rest of the group near the entrance to the park and got back on the buses for the hour-ish long drive to our hotel. It was somewhere in the mountains and Korean-style with the heated floors and mats that you sleep on (as opposed to beds). I actually really enjoyed the heated floor but didn't like sleeping on it after all that hiking. 

We were, of course, starving so Jenee and I left our cozy room and got some samgyeopsal (pork belly BBQ) at a nearby restaurant. After eating we were so tired that we went to bed at 8:00PM. 

The next morning we went on our last hike. It was near where we were staying so everyone headed out to the trail and we started walking. The path follows a creek/stream and leads to a waterfall (it actually goes further but that was our destination). The hike was beautiful despite the fact that we had completely missed the fall leaves in this location. 

The waterfall itself was another disappointment but I suppose it was the journey there that counts! 

On our trek back to the restaurant where we would be eating lunch, we strolled along with a member of our group who is actually Korean but he lived in America for twenty years. It was fun exchanging stories and really that's one of the things I love about these trips is being able to meet people and talk about life in Korea. 

 

Anyway, lunch was delicious (I'm thinking it was doenjang jjigae...bean paste soup). After eating we had to load back up on the buses and head home. It was only supposed to be a three hour trip but there was a lot of traffic so we spend nearly six hours on the bus. Yuck. 

It was worth it, though! This trip was really fun and when are we ever going to get another opportunity to see the most popular mountain in South Korea in the fall? Probably never.