Baegundae Peak (Bukhansan National Park)

A short distance from Seoul, Baegundae is a great escape from the city. The national park offers hiking tracks for all levels. Anything from easy to rock scrambling. Baegundae is somewhere in-between. The national park is accessible by public transport and is quite popular. To avoid crowds, it is best to go as early as possible.

Lookouts

Heritage Sites

Toilets

Public Transport

Scrambling or Climbing

836.5m

Maximum Elevation

727m

Total Climb

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Getting there

To get to the Bukhansanseong Fortress Course using Seoul public transportation, take the metro to Gupabal Station (Line 3). Outside Exit 1, hop onto bus 704 to Bukhansanseong Fortress. Get off at the Bukhansanseong Hiking Support Center to enter Bukhansan National Park and follow the signposts to your preferred route.

If unsure which bus to get onto or which bus stop to get off at, I can guarantee there will be other people who are evidently dressed like they are ready to go hiking. Just follow these people and you will end up at your destination.

Maps

The concept of google maps doesn't exist in South Korea. Naver nor Kakao maps are not much better. For this, it is best to rely on your own wit and whatever signs that you can find in the park.

Route/Trail notes

The hike is well signed in both Korean and English, it is difficult to get lost.

The first part of the hike is relatively easy, it takes you up a gentle incline. Even from early on, the various sheer cliff faces should be visible.

Along the way there are benches of various sorts to sit down on as well as some historically significant structures.

Towards the top, the incline steepens. The final stretch is very narrow and an almost verticle climb. There are chains to help pull yourself up over the exposed rock; however, due to the sheer amount of people doing the hike, coming down and going up, this section of the hike gets bottle necked. Be patient.

The peak has a very small platform for which to stand to on. There is a better place to sit just below the true peak.

GPS Tracks

No GPS available for this walk yet.

Comments

Had a day to kill before my night flight back to Sydney and this filled it in quite nicely. Can easily get to the visitor centre via public transport. From there it is a well signed route all the way to the summit. The track starts off pretty mild, then becomes a bit of a steep scrambly stair case up to the start of the granite section. Despite all the signs and articles warning about how difficult the granite section is I would say it's no harder than anything you would find in Giraween National Park, and it has rope handrails most of the way up so it is pretty managable for just about anyone. The views were excellent, I was lucky to score a nice clear day. There are other peaks nearby that look more challenging and require ropes and harnesses which I would probably look into doing if I hear back to Korea again. Highly recommend this walk if you are in Seoul!
Vonsnrub on 7 Sep, 2023