When I lived in Daegu (2020-2021) I wasn’t the biggest fan of Palgongsan Nature Park, but it has since had a face lift in terms of trail conditions and signage, so I’m now on team “lets like Palgongsan”! With numerous beautiful trails to choose from as well as the Palgongsan Cable Car and the Palgongsan Gatbawi temple to explore, this park has a lot to offer.
As an added bonus this mountain is on the Blackyak 100 Mountain Challenge!
My overall verdict of this hike back in 2020 was that while Palgongsan Nature Park has a couple spots worth taking a direct route to – Dongbong summit and Palgongsan Gatbawi – it mostly wasnt worth the effort to do the whole ridge hike.
But with recent updates to trail conditions and after my second hiking of the whole ridge line in March 2023, I have walked away with a much more positive impression. Ultimately, while it doesn’t touch the top 20 list for best mountains in Korea, it is a solid option for people living in this area.
The majority of this article focuses on my 2020 hikes, but with some additional information from 2023 as well.
The start of the hike was the entrance of Payesa Temple- which can be reached by car or by bus 101-1. The temple is nice but nothing special – no unique features or buddhas. I only looked around a little bit before continuing on.
The first third of the hike is pretty torturous, with an intense climb of about 600 meters of vertical gain over 4km. The path isn’t a set of steep stairs but rather a rocky path that turns into aggressive switchbacks. With the last section being truly killer. Even as a fit hiker, I too was really struggling in the end and took a number of rests to catch my breathe.
Once you reach the top and for most of the hike it’s a very typical ridge hike, with ups and downs. There is a little bit of crawling around boulders which is a fun add on to any hike.
With some climbs more intense than others, but over all very manageable. It’s not a ‘bad hike’, just be prepared for an intense 4km start.
It was quite nice to be hiking for hours and only see a handful of people – which is a bit surprising. This park is as close to Daegu as Bukhansan is to Seoul, yet there is a fraction of the people even on the weekend. The trail is quite beautiful in the first half due to wild flowers and all the dug beetles I saw along the way. But overall, expect for a few spots the views are lacking.
The first view I saw was after about 7km, which is quite a ways considering how long the vertical climb takes. I stopped for some fruit to take in the view. Its not that 7km is a crazy amount of distance before a view, its just a lot of work considering that the views are only just ‘pretty’ and I’ve done a lot less work on mountains near Palgongsan for a better payoff. Biseulsan, Gayasan and Geumosan come to mind. They are are 10km loops that have views that are 3 times as breathtaking as anything I saw at Palgongsan.
It would be about 30 minutes after my fruit break that I would become confused by poor signage and end up on an older, poorly maintained ‘trail’. Seeing no sign and due to overgrown vegetation I would be lead atop a rock face for an advanced detour. I wouldn’t have minded as much having to free climb a little bit if I wasn’t wearing my larger hiking bag.
In March 2023, when i encountered this same spot it was a bit easier. But it remains a bit confusing.
On Dongbong there are three good photo spots/things to see. The name stone, the weather/military complex on the adjacent mountain and the view. It was perfect lunch spot and quite busy as there are a couple direct trails that lead here as well as the cable car that ends below this point making the hike up here much easier for riders.
On this June 2020, I actually missed the main peak – partly because it wasn’t clear to me where it was. After this hike, in the following months I would hike to the main peak half a dozen times, and again in 2023. The peak area is unique, its on the edge of a weather/military instillation that is the back from of the Dongbong view. The main peak’s name is 비로봉/ birobong – which is actually a name shared by a couple mountain peaks including Chiaksan National Park.]
After the peak the trail is a little bit more technically difficult. It involved the use of ropes and this section of the trail was built into to side of the mountain as opposed to mostly middle mountain hiking of the first half. I enjoyed it much more. Throughout this section views were peaking out between the branches of the trees.
After 6km, the trail switched to stairs and began to rise again as the trail was heading toward the buddha temple. At this. point a golf course was visible.
While on the stairs and the surrounding area, the temple in the moutain can be seen.
In the bottom corner of the above photo, another temple can be seen. Instead of continuing on, I turned off the trail and headed down. I wanted to save Gatbawi for another day.
In 2023, I did the full ridge hike as well as go to Gatbawi Temple in one go. The main peak -> Gatbawi -> remains my favorite section of Palgongsan Nature Park.
Happy Trekking
– Aurora
