Mountain park · South & North Jeolla, South Gyeongsang

Jirisan National Park

지리산국립공원

Korea's first national park, and the highest ground on the mainland.

Designated in 1967, Jirisan was the first place in the country to be made a national park, and it is still the largest on land. Cheonwangbong, at 1,915m, is the highest summit in mainland South Korea.

The classic outing here is the ridge traverse — several days along the spine of the massif, sleeping in the mountain shelters, which have to be booked in advance. It is also the heart of the programme to reintroduce the Asiatic black bear.

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 bus from Seoul Nambu or Central City to Gurye (about 3h 30m) for the western side, or to Jinju then a local bus for the Jungsan-ri approach in the south-east. There is no single "Jirisan" stop — pick your trailhead first, then the town that serves it.
Train
KTX to Namwon (about 2h 10m) is the fastest way to the northern side, then a local bus to Baemsagol or Jeongnyeongchi.
Car
Around four hours from Seoul on the Honam or Tongyeong-Daejeon expressways. Worth it here, because the trailheads are spread across three provinces and the bus links between them are slow.

Wildlife & plants

Animals

The centre of Korea's Asiatic black bear reintroduction — a wild population lives here again after the species was all but wiped out. Also otters, yellow-throated martens, wild boar and the flying squirrel. Around 40 mammal species and several hundred birds have been recorded.

Trees & flowers

Korean fir (Abies koreana) on the high ridges, a species found naturally only in Korea and now retreating upward as the climate warms. Royal azalea colours the slopes in late spring, and the valleys hold old mixed broadleaf forest.

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.

Wildlife story

The bears of Jirisan

Deep in the forests of Jirisan lives one of South Korea’s rarest large wild animals — the Asiatic black bear (Ursus thibetanus). In Korean they are 반달가슴곰 (bandalgaseumgom), roughly “half-moon chest bear”, after the white crescent across the chest.

2004: Restoration programme began
6: Bears in the first release
2009: First cubs born wild
86: Wild bears, 2024

Are the bears native to Korea?

Yes. Asiatic black bears lived throughout the Korean peninsula historically, alongside Amur leopards and Siberian tigers. The bears of this part of north-east Asia are the subspecies Ursus thibetanus ussuricus, whose natural range covers the peninsula, north-eastern China and the Russian Far East.

They are a genuine native species — not an animal brought in to make an attraction.

So why were bears released?

Because the original population had all but gone. Hunting, poaching, habitat loss and Korea’s rapid development collapsed bear numbers over generations — they were hunted during the Japanese colonial period, and suffered again around the Korean War and in the decades after it.

By the start of this century researchers believed only a handful survived in Jirisan. Then, in 2000, a television documentary team filmed wild bears in the park and proved some were still there. Rather than let the remnant disappear, Korea decided to rebuild it.

The restoration programme

The programme proper began in 2004, when six young bears from the Primorsky region of the Russian Far East were released here. That was not an arbitrary choice: genetic work found that bears from the Russian Far East and North Korea belong to the same broad group as the peninsula’s historic population.

Bears from Russia, North Korea and north-eastern China followed, along with suitable animals from captivity in Korea. The aim was never simply to put animals on a mountain — it was a self-sustaining wild population that breeds on its own. It worked.

The target of 50 bears was hit in 2018, two years early. By August 2024 the count was 86 in and around Jirisan. Most of them were never released by anyone: they were born wild, the first cubs of the modern programme recorded from 2009. Some have since moved beyond Jirisan along the ridge, including towards Deogyusan.

What do they actually eat?

Not people. They are omnivores, but the great majority of the diet is plant material — a study of droppings collected in the park between 2005 and 2013 put it at 77%.

Plants77%
Insects12.8%
Mammals5.6%
Birds, arthropods, other4.6%

Will you see one? Almost certainly not

Eighty-odd bears across 472 km² of dense forest, and they avoid people. Most park staff go years without a sighting. Encounters are rare enough to make the national news when they happen.

If you do meet one: don’t run, don’t shout, don’t turn your back. Back away slowly while facing it and give it a route out. Keep to marked trails, don’t leave food or rubbish at the shelters, and make a bit of noise on blind corners so nothing is surprised at close range.

What grows and lives here

The mountain up close

Jirisan is the biggest protected area on the Korean mainland and the least tamed. It is the only place in South Korea with a breeding population of Asiatic black bears, its southern slopes grow the country’s oldest tea, and the ridge is high enough that azalea does not open up there until late May.

Layered ridges of Jirisan fading into haze under a bank of cloud — Ridge after ridge
Jirisan
Photo by Olga Lipunova, CC BY-SA 3.0

Azalea bushes flowering on a high open ridge of Jirisan in spring — Spring arrives late on the ridge
Jirisan
Photo by Olga Lipunova, CC BY-SA 3.0

Pink azalea flowering between rocks high on Jirisan — Azalea between the rocks
Jirisan
Photo by Olga Lipunova, CC BY-SA 3.0

A clear stream running over pale boulders through the Baemsagol valley — Baemsagol valley
Jirisan
Photo by Marco Schmidt, CC BY-SA 3.0

Green wooded hills and a path running through the lower slopes of Jirisan — The lower slopes in summer
Jirisan
Photo by 최옥석, CC BY-SA 3.0

Hands sorting bright green freshly picked tea leaves in a wide basket — Sejak tea, picked on the southern slopes
Jirisan
Photo by youngki son, Public domain

The shelters book out, and you cannot wing it

Every shelter on the Jirisan ridge must be booked in advance through the national park service, and in autumn they go within minutes of opening. There is no camping outside them and no arriving on spec — rangers check. Plan the traverse around which shelter you can actually get.

Cheonwangbong is 1,915m and the ridge is exposed for most of its length. People get into trouble here every year in weather that would be unremarkable 1,500m lower down. Carry warm layers even in summer.

Walking it

One day, or three

Jirisan is not a mountain you do in an afternoon. The main ridge runs 25.5km from Nogodan to Cheonwangbong without dropping below about 1,300m, and the classic outing walks the whole thing over three days, sleeping in shelters. There are shorter ways in.

The ridge traverse

The big one

Distance: 25.5 km
Time: 3 days, 2 nights
Grade: advanced

Route: Nogodan → Yeonhacheon → Byeoksoryeong → Jangteomok → Cheonwangbong (1,915m)

Getting to the start: Bus to Seongsamjae for the Nogodan end; finish at Jungsanri and bus out from there. Starting at Hwaeomsa and ending at Daewonsa is the older, longer version.

The great Korean mountain walk. Undulating rather than one long climb, but it never lets up, and the full Seongsamjae-to-Jungsanri version is closer to 30km. Shelters must be booked. Fit walkers do it in two nights; a few do it in a single very long day.

Cheonwangbong from Jungsanri

The summit in a day

Time: 5 hr up
Grade: advanced

Route: Jungsanri → Beopgyesa → Cheonwangbong

Getting to the start: Bus to Jungsanri from Jinju or Sancheong.

The standard day route to the roof of mainland Korea. Steep and relentless from the start, with Beopgyesa — the highest temple in the country — about two thirds of the way up. Start before dawn if you want the summit before the cloud builds.

Nogodan from Seongsamjae

The easy way to a big view

Time: 1 hr up
Grade: easy

Route: Seongsamjae pass → Nogodan (1,507m)

Getting to the start: Bus or taxi up to Seongsamjae, which is already at 1,090m.

The road does most of the climbing for you, which makes this the one big Jirisan viewpoint that anyone can reach. Access to the Nogodan summit platform itself needs a (free) reservation.

Baemsagol valley

Water, not summits

Time: 3–4 hr return
Grade: average

Route: Baemsagol entrance → the valley pools and falls → Hwagae Jae

Getting to the start: From Namwon or Gurye on the northern side.

A valley walk rather than a climb, following a chain of pools and small falls through deep forest. The best thing on the mountain in high summer, and it works when the ridge is in cloud.

Piagol valley

Autumn

Time: 4 hr return
Grade: average

Route: Piagol entrance → Jiksoe falls → Piagol shelter

Getting to the start: From Gurye, on the south-western side.

Long held to be the best autumn colour in Jirisan, usually peaking in the third week of October. Steady rather than steep.

The 25.5km ridge figure and the shelter booking requirement are the park service’s. Shorter routes are given by walking time, because published distances for them vary between sources.

More parks

Juwangsan

Rock gorges, waterfalls and the reflecting pond at Jusanji.

Mudeungsan

Gwangju's mountain, with columns of volcanic rock along the ridge.

Naejangsan

The country's most photographed autumn maples, in early November.

All 23 national parks →