Bukhansan Dulle-gil: All 21 Sections for Foreign Hikers
What This Guide Covers — and Why It Exists
The Bukhansan Dulle-gil is a 71.5 km walking loop that circles the entire Bukhansan National Park massif, threading through forest, ridge villages, Buddhist temples, and old Seoul neighbourhoods. Most foreign visitors walk one or two sections and call it done. This guide explains all 21 sections, which ones reward the effort most, and — critically — which trailheads are difficult to reach without a car.
I have driven clients to nearly every one of these section starts. Some are two-minute walks from a subway exit. Others are down unsigned back roads in Eunpyeong-gu where even Korean day-hikers look slightly lost. Knowing the difference saves you a full morning of frustration before you even put boot to trail.
The Shape of the Loop: How the 21 Sections Are Arranged
The trail is divided into four broad compass quadrants — south, east, north, and west — all stitched together into a continuous circuit. The Korea National Park Service numbers the sections 1 through 21, starting near Dobongsan in the northeast and running roughly clockwise. You do not need to walk them in order or complete the whole thing in one trip; most people pick sections on day-walk outings over several visits.
Total length: 71.5 km. Average section length: 3.4 km, though they range from just 1.5 km (Section 21) to 6.1 km (Section 11). Most sections take 1.5 to 3 hours at a relaxed pace. Elevation gain is generally modest — this is a forested dulle-gil, not a ridge scramble — but a few sections in the Dobong area involve genuine rocky ascent.
The Four Quadrants at a Glance
- Northeast (Sections 1–5): Dobongsan neighbourhood, urban fringes, Uiam valley
- East and Southeast (Sections 6–11): Ui-dong, Jeongneung, Seongbuk-dong, quieter residential approaches
- South (Sections 12–15): Gugi-dong, Hongjimun Gate, Inwangsan area, City Wall crossings
- West and Northwest (Sections 16–21): Eunpyeong, Gaehwa, Jingwan-dong — the sections almost nobody foreign walks
The southern sections get the most foot traffic because they overlap with the Seoul City Wall trail and are closest to Gyeongbokgung subway station. The western and northwestern sections are dramatically quieter: on a weekday morning in February I once dropped a couple from New Zealand at the Section 18 start near Jingwan-dong and they saw four people in three hours. Four.
Section-by-Section Breakdown
Sections 1–5: Dobong Side (Northeast)
Section 1 begins at Dobongsan Station (Line 1 subway) and heads into Mangwolsa valley. It is 3.1 km and well-signed. This is actually one of the easier sections to reach by public transport, so if you are testing the trail before committing to a driver, start here.
Section 2 (2.3 km) links Mangwolsa to the Dobong area administration office and is mostly forested path. Section 3 crosses to Sinambong, running 4.2 km through pine woods with occasional granite outcrops. Section 4 (4.4 km) takes you toward Wondang-ri. This is where things start getting complicated for public transport users — the onward buses run infrequently and the stops can be ambiguous for someone reading Korean signage for the first time.
Section 5 (4.1 km) ends near the Ui-dong forest valley entrance. The section finish sits in a car park that has zero obvious onward transport on weekends. I have picked up clients here who waited 40 minutes for a bus that simply didn't come. This is the first section where having a driver waiting makes a measurable difference to your day.
Sections 6–11: East Side Quiet Villages
Section 6 (3.8 km) runs from Ui-dong to Jeongneung valley, passing the back of Punggyesa Temple. The path here stays mostly below 200 m elevation and has a particularly pleasant late-autumn character when the maples along the stream are turning. Section 7 (2.7 km) is a short connector through Seongbuk-dong that links into the Goryeodae (Korea University) neighbourhood — easy to attach to a city afternoon if you finish by early afternoon.
Sections 8 and 9 form a longer continuous walk that many people combine into a single half-day: roughly 7.5 km together, running from Jeongneung through the forested slopes south of Baegundae. The path quality here is excellent. Section 10 (3.6 km) dips toward Gugi-dong and begins to flirt with the Seoul City Wall route. Section 11, at 6.1 km, is the longest section and traverses the ridge above Segeomjeong before dropping into the valley toward Hongjimun.
Sections 12–15: The Southern Arc and Inwangsan
This is the most visited quarter of the entire loop. Section 12 passes Hongjimun Gate, a small but genuinely old gatehouse on the northern outer wall of Seoul, and then follows the City Wall east toward Bugaksan. It is 3.7 km and has the highest density of history per kilometre of any section. Sign quality is good in English.
Section 13 (2.6 km) crosses to the Buam-dong side, dropping through a neighbourhood of cafes and galleries that has become fashionable in the last five years. You come out near Changuimun (Jahamun Gate). Section 14 climbs Inwangsan, running 4.2 km past the shamanic shrines and granite boulders that make this ridge feel unlike anywhere else inside a capital city. Section 15 (3.3 km) descends toward Hongji-dong and is often done in reverse so you finish in Buam-dong for coffee.
Public transport for sections 12–15 is fully functional from central Seoul. If there is one quadrant where you can manage without a driver, it is this one. That said, returning from the Section 15 finish to where you parked your mental map can still be confusing, and having someone waiting takes the pressure off timing.
Sections 16–21: The Western Wilderness Nobody Walks
I say wilderness loosely — this is Seoul, so there are apartment blocks visible from the ridge. But sections 16 through 21 are where the trail genuinely thins out, the signage gets patchier in English, and the transport situation becomes properly difficult. These are also, in my opinion, some of the most rewarding sections on the whole loop.
Section 16 (3.5 km) runs from Hongjimun (accessed from the west this time) down to the Eunpyeong new town fringe. Section 17 (4.7 km) is a long forested pull through Jingwan-dong, passing the back of Jingwan Temple. The trailhead for Section 17 is about 1.2 km from the nearest bus stop, down a residential lane. I know because I have driven it many times and still double-check the lane on the map each time.
Section 18 (3.2 km) crosses a ridge above Gaehwa-dong and offers a view west toward the Han River plain that almost no foreign visitor ever sees. Sections 19 and 20 run through Galhyeon and Bulgwang valleys (3.0 km and 2.8 km respectively), emerging near Bulgwangsa Temple. Section 21, at just 1.5 km, is a short closing link back to the Dobongsan area and completes the circuit. The final stretch has a satisfying 'closing the loop' feeling even if you are not a through-hiker.
For sections 16–21, a driver is not a luxury — it is genuinely the only practical way a foreign visitor is going to start and finish these stages without spending two hours on overlapping bus routes and arriving at the trailhead already tired.
Practical Planning: Times, Access, and What to Carry
Best Seasons and Daily Timing
Spring (late March to early May) and autumn (mid-October to mid-November) are the peak seasons for a reason: the forest is either flowering or burning with colour, and temperatures stay between 8°C and 20°C through the day. Summer is possible but the humidity inside the forest between July and August is genuine, and afternoon thunderstorms are common enough that you should start early and be off the ridge by 1 pm.
Winter walking (December to February) on the dulle-gil is underrated. The trail is dry, the views are clear, and there are almost no other walkers on sections 16–21. Carry microspikes from January onward if rain has fallen recently — the granite under foot ice in unexpected places.
Plan for a 9 am start for any section over 4 km. This gives you daylight buffer, avoids the worst of the weekend temple-and-park crowds, and means you will be finishing around lunch, leaving the afternoon free for the neighbourhood you emerge into.
What to Know About Trailhead Access
Here is the honest breakdown of how reachable each section start is for a foreign visitor relying on public transport:
- Subway-friendly (30 min or less from central Seoul): Sections 1, 12, 13, 14
- Bus possible but inconvenient: Sections 2, 3, 6, 7, 10, 11, 15
- Car strongly recommended: Sections 4, 5, 8, 9, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21
That last category is not a scare tactic. It reflects what actually happens when I see clients try to reach Section 17 by bus: they end up at the wrong stop, walk 20 extra minutes on a main road, and arrive at the trailhead already frustrated. A driver drops you at the wooden signpost at the lane junction and that frustration never exists.
What to Carry on a Dulle-gil Day
Because this is a dulle-gil and not a summit hike, most people under-pack. Do not. The western sections in particular have no convenience stores or vending machines for 3–4 hours of walking.
- 1.5 litres of water minimum in summer; 1 litre in cooler seasons
- Packed lunch or energy snacks (gimbap from a convenience store near your start point is ideal)
- Waterproof shell — the forest holds rain even after it stops
- Printed map or offline GPS track downloaded before you start (cell signal drops on some of the northern sections)
- Insect repellent May through September — the forest paths hold mosquitoes at dusk
The Korea National Park Service issues a free Bukhansan Dulle-gil stamp passport at the main park visitor centres. Many walkers collect stamps at the stamp posts placed at each section end. It is completely optional but it gives the walk a pleasing structure if you are doing sections over several trips.
How Off Map Korea Runs These Trips
We do not guide the Bukhansan Dulle-gil — you walk it independently with the printed section maps we provide before departure. What we do is drive you to the exact lane-end or car park where the trail begins, arrange a pickup time and location at the section finish, and handle the between-section logistics that turn a complicated day into a simple one.
A typical day trip targets two adjacent sections, say 17 and 18, giving you around 8 km of walking with a relaxed pace and time to stop at Jingwan Temple before the pickup. We run single-section half-day trips too, which pairs well with an afternoon in a neighbourhood like Buam-dong or Eunpyeong Hanok Village.
Pricing depends on the number of walkers and distance driven from central Seoul. [Insert current pricing table here before publishing.] We accept bookings at least 48 hours in advance, and we ask you to confirm the section numbers when you book so we can print the right map inserts.
The best question I get from clients after a western-section day is: 'Why does nobody know about this part of the trail?' Honestly, because it is hard to reach. That is the only reason. The walking itself is as good as anything on the Inwangsan or Bugaksan sections — it just takes a car to unlock it.
If you want to walk the full 71.5 km loop across multiple visits without ever dealing with a confusing bus transfer, that is exactly what we are here for.
Private vehicle + English-speaking driver + printed guidebook + GPS app included.
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