Wolchulsan Suspension Bridge Hike: Korea's Steepest Day
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Why Wolchulsan Stops You Cold The first time I drove a group of clients to Wolchulsan, one of them stepped out of the van at Cheonhwangsa car park, looked up at the ridgeline, and just said 'oh.' Not in a bad way. In the way people say it when a mountain looks nothing like what they expected. The granite battlements above Yeongam-gun are serrated, almost aggressive — closer in character to Seoraksan than anything else in the south of the peninsula, yet almost nobody outside Korea has heard of the place. Wolchulsan became a national park in 1988, making it the smallest designated national park in Korea by area. Small does not mean tame. The elevation tops out at 809 metres on Cheonhwangbong, but the vertical relief — combined with exposed rock scrambles and that famous suspension bridge crossing — makes this one of the most physically demanding day hikes south of Seoul. If your knees are already tired, come back another day. The Suspension Bridge: What the Photos Don't...