I live and study in Daegu, South Korea. As the third largest city and surrounded by mountains from every side, the hiking here is diversity and the hiking community large. I’ve hiked every major mountain in the area and when asked to recommend a mountain to friends visiting my city, I will always recommend Biseulsan (비슬산).
Located south of the city center and connected to the famous Apsan Mountain by a 16km trail, Biseulsan’s highest peak Cheonwangbong (천왕봉, 1,084m) can be hiked from a variety of directions. The two most common methods are to either directly hike to the peak and return, or to do a 10km horseshoe loop which includes the Daegyeonbong Peak (대견봉, 1,035m).
This 10km loop has become a famous spring must see, as the valley centered in the middle of the loop blooms an intense and beautiful pink color and becomes overrun with Korean and foreign tourists alike for the spring time Azalea Festival.
While there’s no debate this mountain takes the cake for most beautiful spring time hike in Daegu, I’m going to argue it also takes the #1 stop for summer hikes as well.
The largest draw back to hiking this mountain is the location. Luckily there is a fairly simple but long way to get there. Starting my day at 6:15 with a coffee purchase and riding line 1, the red subway line, to the end stop Seolhwa Myeonggok (설화명곡역), I left the subway station out of exit 7. From there I caught bus 600 but 달성5 also works fine. During the weekend, the route for bus #600 is different than from the weekday route. If you go on a weekday bus #600 doesn’t go to the mountain.
The bus ride claims on Kakao Maps to be 1 hour 5 minutes, but its actually closer to 1 hour 30 minutes. This is because there is a 20 minute stop at a bus terminal. Luckily there is a CU in this small bus terminal so you can purchase last minute necessities, but the terminal stop may be impacted by the season so I won’t plan for this stop to happen why packing. I bought some coffee here to get the blood flowing a bit better.
I arrived at the starting point, the Biseulsan Recreational Forest (비슬산휴림), at about 8:10am. Wandering a bit and passing by an auto camping site, 20 different small bathrooms, extensive picnic areas next to a small stream and some rental cabins, I arrived at the trail head at 8:45pm and was greeted by Seoraksan quality signage. It was such a relief to see the investment and resources the city of Daegu has put into this national park. It lies in stark contrast to Palgongsan – located to the northeast of the Daegu city center – whose signage is an embarrassment to this great city.
The initial hike up is considered expert. Which is a ranking I believe is due to the steepness rather than its technical difficulty. There are two trails that can get you to the first summit, the expert level 1.3km or the longer moderate trail. I opted for the expert level trail and was awarded for my troubles throughout with beautiful city and mountain views. I summited in about 1 hour 15 minutes.
The weather was perfect at about 88F/31C with enough clouds in the sky to make the photos interesting. I took my time at the first peak, Daegyeonbong Peak standing at 1,035m. With my camera but no tripod, I got a bit creative. As a landscape photographer, I was having a field day on this hike, but it was also a fun opportunity to experiment with some profile style photos. The stone is different on each side so it looks like you could have hiked 2 peaks instead of one.
From the Daegyeonbong Peak, the Cheonwangbong Peak becomes more visible. On the righthand side, the valley that lies between the two peaks can also be clearly seen.
As this hike is horseshoe shaped, shortly after beginning my descent I could see the full valley. I’ve not had the opportunity to see this mountain in the spring when the Azaleas are in full blooms, but I’m sure this view is breathtaking in the spring.
Located in the center of the valley are numerous look out points and the Daegyeonsa Temple (대견사). It added an exploration point to this hike, as I wondered about for a while looking at all the little signs and small side trails designed for the spring time festival.
About 2.9km from the temple is the main Biseulsan Peak, Cheonwangbong (천왕봉, 1,084m). Its a bit of a climb upwards, but it felt like nothing after doing the main climb. The two peaks and temple can be clearly seen from the elevation change from my hike.
At Cheonwangbong Peak there are a number of gazebos, rocky seating areas and tall grass that resembled the velociraptor chase scene in Jurassic Park II. It was really cool to see the “Apsan 16km” sign, the trail isn’t marked on Kakao Maps so I had no idea until now that they were connected. Doing the whole trail is definitely on my bucket list now. I also stopped here for my lunch.
It was quite busy at the top of the mountain but you can’t tell because photoshop 
At this point in the hike – I’m 50% kimbap and 50% sweat
I had discovered this hike from photos posted on Instagram, so it was really exciting to be here and to be able to take photos of my own.
From Cheonwangbong Peak its about 3.5km straight down to the Yugasa Temple (유가사) and the bus 달성5 that can take you home or at least back to the red line/line 1. The bus comes every 60-90mins depending on the season. You should do research on this yourself before embarking.
I opted to just trail run to the bottom so I didn’t take many photos during the descent. But I did make a new friend. He was kind enough to let me take a photo of him.
At this point I’m a toad photographer. I keep finding them while hiking. Its sort of hilarious because my lens which is 16-32mm, is not meant for this type of photography. I have a 100mm micro lens but carrying around a second lens while hiking never seems worth it. So in order to take these photos, I’ve got to get right up close to him. I look kind of crazy as I do it. Need proof? My friend took this photo of me last time we found a toad while hiking. He couldn’t stop laughing.
I’m debating doing this hike again in the winter. If anyone has any experience with that and could offer me advice or their opinion, that would be greatly appreciated.
Happy Hiking 🙂
-Aurora
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