July 30 2023 This is a beautiful hike. It is long. The mountains so beautiful with water streams and waterfalls everywhere. It was a perfect day for me. I went up at 1:00. I am very slow I stopped met people made friends. It was a dream come true. Some areas at top are scary if you are afraid of heights. I was fortunate to have the clouds cover me. Less feeling of exposure. So beautiful. Enjoy. I went after three days of rain. So might have been more waterfalls.

My advice for first time visitors should be First stop to the Visitors’ Centre to ask for direction and advice on which route to take. We were told to take the easier route to Daeseongmun Gate which is about 3 km and take about 3 hrs on a full trip back. Considering that my partner and I are quite fit, we thought it will be a piece of cake. But 45 minutes later, we found the route very challenging with steep slope laid with stones and the route became tougher with steep steps. We took 1 hr 45 mins to reach Daeseongmun Gate. And another 1 hrs 35 mins to return to base. Total : 6 km. I must say that we were shagged and our legs muscles sore. Being part of nature does not come easy. The efforts were worth it as the hike was very peaceful with plenty of fresh air and shades. Do bring along your own bottle of water.

Hiking to the top was long and hard. Even though we started quite early and was on the trail by about 8, it still took us a few hours to get to the peak. Many stone and rocks to be climbed over and it is quite steep at times. At the top there is quite a few people so it can take a little while to actually reach the peak as some of the trail gets narrow. Coming down we were happy that we got up early to do it, as we found the crowds going up were quite big. I can imagine starting it in the middle of the day would take much more time, as you also have to factor in waiting for people to move along. As for the sights, they were great from the top. The peak is a bit hairy as well, if you don't have a good head for heights it might not be the best mountain to climb to the top. The day we did it it was quite windy so a little tense at the very top. Some people were braver than us and going to the edge of the large rocks and slabs of stone......we were happy to keep within the ropes and chains. Good exercise and well worth the effort, but it was a hard climb. (to add: crowds were due to the weekend and it was also a national holiday weekend)