wolchulsan national park 월출산 국립공원

cheonhwangbong 천황봉 809 meters

6.2KM Loop

📍Trailhead

I first visited Wolchulsan National Park several years ago during a weekend trip with friends to Jindo for the Sea Parting Festival. We had seen pictures of the amazing “cloud bridge” and wanted a chance to hike up and see it in person. At that time, my friends and I made our way up the mountain to the bridge and then continued on our road-trip leaving the rest of the mountain unexplored.

Fast forward to December 2019…I had wanted to cross a few more National Park peaks off my list, so Ashleigh and I went on a weekend trip to hike Wolchulsan on a Saturday, and I would hike Mudeungsan National Park the following day.

Starting at the trailhead, we had originally planned a loop that would include both the peak, Cheonhwangbong, and the cloud bridge. However due to it being winter, some trails were closed and after a 2.5 hour drive from Geoje we were limited in daylight hours. In the end, we chose a loop route that would take us to the peak and along the beautiful ridgeline.

Starting from the Gyeongpodae Information Center, the parking lot was close to empty and we encountered few people on the trail. The trail starts at about 180 meters in elevation, so we had about 600 meters to climb to the ridgeline. It was easy to follow with just one junction on the way up before reaching the ridgeline.

Another 1.2 kilometers from the junction you will reach the ridgeline. Be prepared for some amazing views!

When you arrive on the ridgeline you can turn left to hike a further 0.5 kilometers to reach Gujeonbong Peak. When the weather is nicer and we have more time, I hope to return and hike the entire ridgeline including in that direction as well. For today, we hung a right and started to make our way along the beautiful rocky trail.

After 1 kilometer you’ll have a final push to the peak. Here you can relax and take in the views all around. If you look around the sides of the peak you can even spot the cloud bridge well below you in the distance.

From the peak, continue down the side of the mountain behind the summit stone. It’s a steep climb down. At the first junction, turn right. You’ll head down a very long stairway before making another right. At the bottom of the stairway is the trail to continue towards the cloud bridge. It would have been great to keep going, but the trail was closed so we had to loop back to where we started.

Afterwards, we drove an hour north to Gwangju, where I would hike Mudeungsan National Park the following day, and rewarded ourselves for our day of hiking with some yummy Mexican food downtown. Thanks for another great day hiking, Ashleigh!