Longest Hike in South Korea: 40km Jirisan (지리산) for 3 Days 2 Nights

There’s no doubt that South Korea is a mountainous country full of beautiful hikes and views to explore. But while there is no shortage of day trip adventures, if you are a fan of multiple day (2+) hiking treks, Jirisan is by far your best option and arguably your only option.

In the late autumn of 2019, I solo hiked Jirisan with my DSLR camera. In the below article I will chronicle my adventure and discuss the facilities, transportation, booking shelters and other must knows about hiking this great Korean mountain.

If you want to support my blog or get yourself some cool Korean national park swag, please consider checking out my Etsy shop! I make Korean camping and hiking souvenirs!

Day One: Seoul to Jirisan and 9km to Nogodan Shelter

The most frustrating thing about this mountain range is its location and thus public transportation woes. The most famous and recommended route for hiking Jirisan is from west to east, with the starting point in Gurye. It’s not a famous town so bus and train selections are limited but available. The most convenient method is to take the 9:20am bus from Central City (the Seoul bus terminal) to Guyre (구례). From the terminal there is a bus that departs for the entrance of the park about 10 minutes after your Seoul bus is expected to arrive. You will reach the front entrance of Jirisan between 1pm to 1:30pm. There is an 3,500won admission for the temple (화업사) that sits at the base of the trail. You have to buy the ticket to enter the park. There is a short (maybe 1.5-2km) trek between the entrance of the park to the starting trail point, which is next to the temple.

From the entrance of the park, I began to track the hike from the Strava app. The app recorded about 1,238M of elevation gain and 9.8km of distance that I was able to cover that in about 2 hours 40 minutes. My arrival point and your only option for overnight accommodation is the Nogodan shelter. Check in at the shelter starts at 4:30pm which is roughly when you should be completing the climb from the temple.

*Important to Note* Camping in the park is illegal and you have to reserve you spot in the shelter at least 1 ahead of time (more information on booking shelters here).

It’s a bit of a rough day – with a long time on the bus and a hike that’s just vertical gain with almost no views to speak of. But you are suffering today for the beautiful views of the following two days.

Staying in the shelters during the colder months is an interesting experience – with the driest air from the heated floors and lack of ventilation. This shelter is hostel-esk with open air cubes in rooms that are gender segregated. There is seating outside with a couple benches, a small building for setting up your portable stove with an abundance of counter space as well as a spout for drinking water. The shelter sells rice (which you can ask to be heated in the microwave), chocolate snack cakes, water, and coffee in the can. Unlike the other shelters there is a coffee vending machine as well. The other products must be purchased when the staff is working, which iduring reasonable hours only. Don’t expect to be able to buy anything before setting out in the morning.

Early to bed early to rise

These shelters besides acting as place to rest your head, also function as walls. Gates are lowered and hiking is prohibited into the evening. The Nagodan Pass’s entrance opens at 5am and closes at 4pm. The various shelters spread throughout the trail to the peak each have their own cut of points, when planning which shelters to stay in this must be consider. I’m a fit hiker, I could have gone further due to my good endurance but hiking Jirisan isn’t about endurance as you can not hike into the evening even if you want to.

Day Two: 20km Nogodan to Seseok

On the second day, I hiked from the Nogodan Shelter to the Seseok Shelter. The distance according to my Strava tracker was 20.9km and 1,290m of elevation gain. This day is a ridge hike so be prepared to do a lot of up and down, in the 1,300m – 1,500 elevation range.

The start of the hike is kind of funny, as the Nogodan Pass sign is lit up with a flashing green light that creates a ghost like atmosphere for the start of the hike. Spooky!

My day started at 5:40am and I arrived at Yonhacheon Shelter (연하천대피소) by 11am where I was able to buy chocolate snacks and refill my water bottles. This shelter is by far the least impressive and buried deep in the mountain with no view. (no pictures provided)

About 3.6km from the Yonhacheon Shelter is the Byeoksoryeong Shelter, which is the well used lunch spot. I arrived at about 12:30 and I sat down to enjoy some packed food while seated at a bench. It’s a pretty spot and I wish I could have stayed longer here but I was a little paranoid because of the cut off times for this shelter. Which is 1 or 2 pm depending on the season, so you likely don’t have a ton of time for an elaborate lunch. Even with a super early morning start, if you are taking it slow to enjoy all the beautiful views, be careful to keep track of time so you don’t get stuck at the wrong shelter.

It was after this shelter that I met a group of older men who invited me to join their group. For the next day and a half, I was force fed chocolate and spent every waking moment with these guys. It was a fun addition to my adventure and really helped to make this one of my favorite hikes I’ve ever done in Korea.

The views are pretty before the Byeoksoryeong Shelter but they begin to become truly breath taking after the shelter. Theres about 6km between the two shelters, so after another 4 hours of hiking before I was able to arrive at about 4:20pm ish at Seseok Shelter. Check in was at about 5pm ish? It wasn’t a long wait.

At night, due to the lack of light pollution the stars were very beautiful here. The shelter was larger both inside and outside – with more space than the Nogodan shelter for eating and cooking.

The group and I created a stew of sorts and hot rice was purchased from the shelter. Shots of soju and whiskey were poured from water containers in secret as the Korean signs read no alcohol.

At the time (autumn 2019) this shelter was being upgraded so the bathroom situation left much to be desired. But having been back since then I’m happy to report things have improved greatly.

In addition, while the rooms are still gender segregated, gone are the ‘cube’ like design. Instead it’s open rooms, with the same heated floors. The shelter offers you the ability to rent for 1,000 won thick green blankets and mats. But the heated flooring made the blanket useless as a blanket for it was far too warm for such a thick material. In the main common area is a number of books as well as extensive section of outlets for all your charging needs. All the shelters have boot rooms so prepare to walk around in your socks. The staff were kind and super helpful here.

At this point, the biome has changed to mostly evergreen trees and low lying shrubs. It made for a very beautiful environment to nurse a hot drink while my breath came out in white puffs in the late autumn air.

Day 3: Seseok to Cheonwangbong and then home

This is the day to be awake and actually departing at 5am, when the gate opens.

Day 3 is the day you will see the sunrise over a beautiful view, as well as see the summit and then head back home.

Strava put this day at 8.4km and 435m of elevation gain. It’s the easiest day on paper but requires quick feet to ensure you get to a good spot for the sunrise. Its 3.4km between the Seseok shelter and the Jangtomok Shelter (장터목대피소) with the Yonhabong peak in the middle to slow you down. You will see the sunrise between these two shelters.

The Jangtomok Shelter is the classic breakfast spot, we shared the counters with people staying in Jongteomok who wanted a later departure time. This is another shelter to rival Byeoksoryeong Shelter as having the best views. My group did another joint meal that involves 3 different people’s kimchi, a rice dish and instant coffee.

Between Jangteomok Shelter and the peak is another 1.7km on what is considered “advanced” difficulty. Up to this point all of day two had been intermediate hiking. Following the peak the trail is considered expert. Although the upward elevation change and distance is by far the least, it’s the most technically difficult hiking day.

Also, its from this point that you start seeing warning signs that are a bit scary. Throughout the hike there are warnings for the Asian Black Bear – “half moon bear/반달곰” but honestly the signs are sort of adorable and they don’t have the reputation of the northwestern brown bears so it wasn’t scary to see those signs. But the signs warning in Korean about snakes & bees that if bitten you need to get to the hospital within 3 to 4 hours for treatment wasn’t a fun read.

The hike to the top is sparely covered by trees and the clouds can be seen below ones feet. The views are countless and its hard to decide what to take photos of because I wanted to stop every couple minutes.

When I reached the peak, there was a younger man relaxing. We chatted and he would actually find me on Instagram a couple day later when I posted my photos, Korea has a smaller hiking culture that’s extremely friendly in my opinion.

The peak area is fairly large so it’s a popular lunch spot before heading down the mountain. Fun fact, these old men are low key professional photographers! They were guiding me on where to stand for the perfect photo.

The hike down was beautiful but it felt like it would never ended. Its expert difficulty due to its steepness, and it was brutal on the knees. After this day, my legs were a bit sore.

At the time of hiking this course, I was under the impression there was no public transportation and ended up taking a taxi with the older korean men back to Jinju, and then an express bus from Jinju to Seoul. Turns our from Jungsanri Bus terminal (located 1.6km further down the road from Jirisan’s Jungsanri park entrance, that there are buses that go directly to Seoul’s South bus station as well as buses that leave roughly every hour for Jinju. From Jinju, major cities like Busan, Daejeon etc can be easily reached by intercity or express bus.

I said by goodbyes to my hiking companions in downtown Jinju. They heading off to the sauna and I went to the bus terminal, eager to get back home and relax in my own bed.

Overall Impressions

This was my favorite singular hike at the time and Jirisan still is my second favorite mountain range – beaten out only by Seoraksan. It’s a must see if you consider yourself a hiker in South Korea.

Most people who have been to Jirisan, haven’t done the long ridge hike in order to summit the Cheonwangbeong peak. Instead they have gone to Nogodan or have directly summited Cheonwangbeong peak. But even if you have done these day-hikes, this 3-day 2-night trek is worth adding to the list. You get to see the middle part of the ridge as well as see the Jirisan sunrise & the night sky views. The overnight shelters mean you don’t need to purchase any extra equipment, nor be uncomfortable camping in the great outdoors. ItItss friendly as both a solo adventure or bring a friend.

Booking your accommodation at Shelters

So you can’t just role up at the shelters. Bookings are made online through this website.

• You need to screenshot or print out your reservations (be able to prove you have a reservation even if the internet isn’t great – internet bars varies at each shelter, and there is no wifi).
• Reservations open on the 1st and 15th of the month, and depending on the season can fill up quickly or always have open spots.
• The website isn’t super phone friendly so best to use your computer.
• The cost is 13,000 won a night and you need to pay in cash and have a form of identification.