With its 23 national parks and countless trails, South Korea offers a wealth of hiking opportunities. However, the complexity of trail maps and the challenge of transportation logistics can make choosing the right trail overwhelming. The book, Hiking the National Parks of Korea by Yoon Hong-geun (Hong), Christian Jorgensen (Chris), and Park Hyeon-jeong (Lily) simplifies this process, by providing two trail options for each national park.
The TLDR: This book isn’t the world’s most comprehensive park guide book, its a beginners guide – if you want to know the most popular two courses in the park and how to do them, this is a must buy for nature lovers in South Korea. You can buy it at Kyobo (교보).
The 46 trails selected in this book are all one-day hikes, that are accessible by car or public transportation typically to the most popular destinations and summits. The book is arranged by national park and has critical information such as fire prevention closure dates for each parks, trail reservation information and custom made maps that simplify the information to only what is needed.
Below is a sample of the book – focused on Woraksan National Park. The chapter starts with a basic introduction of the park, a simplified park map that highlights the major trails and then jumps into detailing one of the trails. It gets its own map, many pictures, a description of various sections and some trail notes. Then it goes on to the next trail (not shown here).
It’s just enough information to get you to the site, without any major surprises. My favorite part of the book is that it’s clearly meant to be helpful with QR codes linked to Naver Maps for the starting points, as well as names written in English and Korean. Too often English guides leave out the Korean names to make it ‘accessible to non-Korean speakers’ which ultimately just makes using the Korean navigation apps just that much harder.
Another great aspect of the book is the map legend section on pg 14. Here they teach you valuable Korean words for things like shelter, visitor center, waterfall and viewing area. In the book, all these things are translated, but out and about on the trail, that isn’t always so.
My issues with the book are minor: The parks are not arranged in ABC order instead they are ordered by when they became parks historically – which is an odd way of ordering a book that’s meant to be a beginners guide. I’ve been to all the parks in Korea, multiple times, and even I had to keep looking at the index to figure out where the parks are located in the book.
My verdict – its success at what it seeks to accomplish. New to Korea? I would recommend you buy the book when you are here. Wanting to go to new national parks? It’s worth getting the book. Hikers who are super knowledgeable about Korean national parks, and who want to see every inch of a park and try all the trails… Not really the book for you. I’m not the target demographic, but this is the book I wish I had 6 years ago when I started hiking in South Korea.
Where to buy Hiking the National Parks of Korea?
(btw I don’t get a commission on sales, nor is this sponsored)
The Author: Yoon Hong-geun
While this book was written by three authors; Hong, Chris and Lily – I want to take a moment to talk about Hong and his hiking group Exploring National Parks (ENP).
My favorite section of the book is Gayasan National Park, but that’s mostly because a photo of me spread across two pages. In May of 2021, the first author and a friend of mine, Hong, invited me to join him and his family for a camping and hiking trip in Gayasan National Park. We had met several months prior when he had invited me to present at an event. Hong is a very generous and kind man, and is family is equally as charming. It was a fantastic hike and camping BBQ outing – I see that the photos from that trip populate this section. Hong, his son and I would later hike the main peak in Juwangsan National Park together as well. I’m particularly grateful that the photos of me wading through waist-high water to retrieve my phone, which had fallen from my bag into the river, were not included in the final publication.
I’m fortunate enough to have met and spent time with Hong a number of times and Lily once. They are both amazing people and employees of the Korea National Park Service (KNPS).
Hong has committed his career and personal efforts to promoting Korea’s national parks to expatriates in South Korea and to people worldwide. He was pivotal in the creation of the Korea National Park Supporters in 2021, where I had the honor of being a guest speaker, and subsequently launched the ‘Exploring National Parks (ENP)’ hiking group for foreigners in 2022. This group arranges monthly hiking excursions throughout South Korea’s national parks.
In spring 2023, I attended an event by ENP which arranged a hiking trip in Sobaeksan National Park. If you are living in South Korea, I would recommend you check out the ENP Facebook group. Unlike other groups which depart from Seoul, this group’s trips are more accessible to people in other areas, as they arrange local (to the national park) transportation and have you arrive at the main train station or bus station.
Hong is both a friend and a man I have a great respect for. It is for that reason I recommend you consider spending a weekend day hiking with this excellent organization 🙂
Happy Trekking!
-Aurora
