Mountain park · North & South Jeolla, South Gyeongsang
Deogyusan
덕유산국립공원
A long, gentle ridge at 1,600m — and the easiest big summit in the country.
Hyangjeokbong stands at 1,614m, but Deogyusan is unusual in that you do not have to earn all of it: the gondola at Muju Deogyudae ski resort lifts you most of the way, leaving a walk of about twenty minutes to the top.
That makes it the most accessible of Korea's high summits, and it is spectacular in winter, when rime ice coats the ridge. Gucheongdong valley on the northern side is the long way up, past waterfalls and Baengnyeonsa temple.
Photograph by Yoo Chung, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.5. Resized for this page.
Getting there from Seoul
Door-to-door estimates for a normal day; they stretch on a holiday weekend. Check the timetable before you rely on a last bus back.
Bus
Express coach from Seoul Nambu to Muju, about 3h, then a local bus to the resort or to Gucheondong.
Train
No useful line. The coach is the way.
Car
Around three hours. Worth it in winter, when the resort road is the only sensible approach.
Wildlife & plants
Animals
Asiatic black bears from the Jirisan programme have been tracked moving through this massif, which is the point — the Baekdudaegan ridge is meant to work as a corridor. Also goral on the crags, otter, marten and flying squirrel.
Trees & flowers
Korean fir and yew near the summit, some of the yews several hundred years old. Gucheondong valley is lined with old broadleaf forest and is one of the better autumn valleys in the country.
Korea’s wildlife is shy and mostly nocturnal — you’re far more likely to see tracks than animals. Wild boar are the one to know about: keep your distance, don’t run, and never get between a sow and her young.
More parks
Gayasan
Haeinsa temple, and the 80,000 woodblocks of the Tripitaka Koreana.
Gyeongju
The only historical national park — a thousand years of Silla, spread across a valley.
Gyeryongsan
A ridge of jagged peaks and old temples on the edge of Daejeon.