For hikers looking to explore a new Korean national park without embarking on a complicated journey to a remote location, Mudeungsan National Park is an excellent choice. Situated in the city of Gwangju in Jeollanam-do, this park offers the opportunity to experience a distant part of South Korea while enjoying all the conveniences of a major city. Mudeungsan stands out for its interesting geological features, its meadow style mid-peak areas and diverse hiking course options.
This park is a local winter hotspot. Its main peak is on the 100 mountain challenge, and you can get a stamp here for the Korean National Park Stamp Passport. So, there are no shortage of reasons to plan a trip to Mudeungsan National Park.
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Transportation to Gwangju & Mudeungsan National Park
Gwangju is the largest city in Jeollanam-do and the 6th largest city overall in South Korea. This city is directly south of Seoul and is connected by both the KTX and SRT trains, which take roughly 1 hour 30 minutes to 1 hour 45 minutes depending on the particular train. Because of its location, all major areas south of Seoul – such as Daejeong and Jeonju – are likewise connected by KTX, and all major cities such Seoul, Busan and Daegu offer frequent long distance bus services as well.
Once in the city – navigating to Mudeungsan National Park
Mudeungsan National Park Entrance (Jeungsimsa District Visit Information Center)
광주 동구 증심사길 71
https://naver.me/xWBK53E3
From the Gwangju express bus terminal
Gwangju Bus Terminal (Yu. Square)
광주 서구 무진대로 904
https://naver.me/Fkj06Z2P
- It’s a 30 minute taxi ride (10km ~ 13,000 won) directly to the entrance of the park. Or 30 bus ride on bus ‘첨단09’ , plus 3 and 6 walks to the bus stop and to the park, respectively. This bus comes every 7 minutes to the pick up point ‘광주종합버스터미널’ located in front of the bus terminal and the drop off point is ‘무등산국립공원‘ / Mudeungsan National Park, which is a 6 minute walk away. For this starting point both transportation options work great.
From the Gwangju KTX and SRT station (광주송정역)
Gwangju Songjeong Station (Express Railroad / KTX)
광주 광산구 상무대로 201
https://naver.me/IFI7Y49r
- The commute is likewise 30 minutes by taxi (19.3km ~ 18,000 won), but since the distance is much farther than the bus terminal the public transport is also a bit longer.
- For this starting location I would recommend the taxi approach, but if you opt for public transport it’s about 50 minutes with a 30 minute subway ride and a 10 minute bus ride. The KTX station is connected to the subway, so getting off the KTX train follow signs to line 1 (green), heading in the direction of Sotae (소태) and Nokdong (녹동), with the next stop being Songjeong Park Station (송정공원역). You ride this subway until Hakdong Jeungsim Temple Enterance (학동.증심사입구역) which is 15 stops and 26minutes away. From there you exit the station from exit 1, and walk straight 150 meters until you come to the Bus stop ‘학2마을아파트’, where you can ride any of the following buses for 6 minutes, 운림35, 운림54, 운림51, 운림50, 수완12 or 수완49, until you reach the bus stop named Seongchun Village (성촌마을). From here is a 5 minute walk to the start of the trail. Once again, while this is the cheaper transport option, there will be taxis available from the KTX station so it’s the far easier method.
Lodging in Gwangju
While its possible to do this trip in a day, it would be a very long day with two long bus/train rides, local transportation and the hike itself. Gwangju has a lot to offer, both culturally and historically that would make staying here worth a second day – or to simply just relax after the hike without rushing off back home.
The following are three good lodging options:
Most accommodation options in this area are roughly the same price point (+- $10) and the three I recommend all have 8.0+ ratings.
- Guest 145 for $40-50 a night
- The 3 star hotel Hotel Artheim for $60-75 a night
- The three star hotel Brown Dot Hotel Sinan for $55-65 a night. I’m personally a fan of the brown dot chain, having stayed in a couple of them over the years. The other two are also in good locations with high reviews.
Hiking in Mudeungsan National Park
There are no shortage of trails to hike, this national park looks like a spider web, similar to Bukhansan National Park. In this guide I will focus on the major highlights.
There are four noteworthy points in Mudeungsan that I think are worth seeing, either all in one day or over the course of multiple trips. The are shown in red boxes below and I cover them in detail in this guide, they are the following; (1) Jangbuljae [장불재], (2) Ipseokdae Rocks [입석대], (3) Gyubongam Temple [규봉암], and (4) Anyangsan mountain [안양산].
There are many ways to complete the blue trail which brings you between the entrance of the park (yellow box) and the main peak loop area / Jangbuljae [장불재]. You can pick based on difficultly or length, or just follow the flow of people along the path that is guiding you to Jangbuljae [장불재], which is in a red box in my below map.
Light blue box is the main peak & Red boxes are points of interest described in this article
Yellow box is the public transportation / main starting point & orange boxes are three alternative starting points that require a car and planning.
Blue course is the main course to the peak area, the yellow course is the peak loop and the pink course is the White Horse Trail, which is a famous alternative trail.
Hiking the Peak Loop
The yellow highlight course is the loop between the Peak (Seoseokdae rock/ 서석대 – blue box) and Jangbuljae [장불재].
This course can be done as a 2.2km loop, or as a there and back (1 km each way) between Jangbuljae and the peak (Seoseokdae rock/ 서석대). This peak loop area is the most famous part of the national park and is characterized by its tall grassy appearance. The hike to get to this area, no matter the course taken, is a mix between wooded areas and the small bamboo-like plant.
The main peak is 1,110 meters and is not in fact the highest point of the park, as that areas is protected and utilized for government purposes – as can be seen in the background of the below left image.
The peak area has three major highlights (1) the peak, (2) Janbuljae valley [장불재], and the Ipseokdae Rocks [입석대]. All of which I will explore in more details below.
Jaebuljae [장불재] Valley
A Korean fun fact: names that end with -재 on mountains mean ‘valley’ – specifically this word is often used to describe the low point on a ridge between two mountains.
Jangbuljae is essentially a field that has a constructed rest area, a lot of log seating and a cute ‘summit’ stone. There is also a small ranger station here as well. This is the main and most popular resting area near to the peak – acting as a place to escape the wind in the winter, or to get out of the sun in this exposed area. In the winter, this is the most popular lunch spot.
Circle: Ipseokdae Rocks & Square: Peak
Ipseokdae Rocks [입석대]
Located in Mudeungsan Mountain, the Jusangjeolli cliffs include Seoseokdae, Ipseokdae, and Gyubong Rocks – the latter of which has Gyubongam Temple [규봉암] sitting in front of them – all of which were formed around 70 million years ago. Ipseokdae and Gyubong Rocks have distinct pillar shapes due to heavy weathering, while the less weathered Seoseokdae resembles a folding screen.
Ipseokdae Rocks are an example of columnar jointing, which is a geological formation where cooling lava contracts and fractures into hexagonal columns. It occurs when thick lava flows or volcanic ash deposits cool uniformly from the top and bottom, creating tension that results in these distinctive cracks. This process forms the characteristic columnar structures seen in various volcanic regions. These rocks can be seen on Jeju Island as well.
You naturally walk past this rock formation while completing the 2.0km there and back or 2.2km loop between Jangbuljae and the peak. This spot can’t and shouldn’t be missed!
Winter Wonderland
Most of the mountains in Jeollanam-do receive little no snow, with some notable exceptions such as Jirisan. This is in part because of the slightly warmer climate, but predominately because most of the mountains in the area are much more low lying than in say Gangwon-do.
The upper area of Mudeungsan is another such exception. As can be seen from the middle photo below, the upper part of Mudeungsan does get pretty snowy. Snow here isn’t as intense as say the snow fall and accumulation in Seoraksan National Park. However, Mudeungsan gets a ‘winter wonderland’ look – the warmer and wetter conditions in Jeollanam-do often causes snow and ice to stick to the trees, so while there isn’t much on the ground, it completely covers everything else.
To see this winter look, it’s best to do the full loop (2.2km trail), as the back side not hiked in the there and back is the more woody section, so the snow is more dramatic there. Worth noting that the open, non-wooded section also gets a similar snow look just on the shrubs.
White Horse Ridge Trail [백마능선]
The pink highlighted trail is the famous white horse ridge trail [백마능선], Baekma Neungseon.
This course is an exposed grass trail which brings you to Anyangsan mountain [안양산 – red box]. This course offers unobstructed views of the peak and the surrounding area – however it ends at 무등산펀백자연휴양림 – orange box in the bottom left, which is a park entrance on the opposite side of the park as the city.
The name of the trail originates from the appearance of the tall grasses that are growing along the ridge, which resembles the mane of a white horse.
Views and the peak of Anyangsan mountain [안양산 – red box] of the White Horse Ridge Trail.
This peak isn’t on any major hiking competitions, but the trail has gained a lot of popularity in part because of the views that can be seen here.
I’ve hiked this course twice, and both times I went with multiple people with cars and we dropped one vehicle here and started from (A) 도원방지원센터 and (B) 수만탐방지원센터, in the orange boxes.
If you have the flexibility to do this sort of trip, both of these starting points have their own benefits.
(A) 도원방지원센터 allows you to go to Gyubongam Temple [규봉암] – red arrow line – while climbing to Jangbuljae. This is a particularly beautiful temple and one of my favorites. At the temple you can also see the Guybong Rocks, which like the Ipseokdae Rocks are a columnar jointing formation.
(B) 수만탐방지원센터 is the closest starting point to the peak, allowing you to skip much of the climb up. It’s only 1.6km to Janbuljae, but it’s an advanced trail.
Gyubongam Temple [규봉암]
This is one of the only mountain temples in South Korea that I might say is its own destination. This is in part because I found the rocks/mountain part of the temple to be very impressive. As I described above, this is a separate geological formation known as the Guybong Rocks. The views from the temple aren’t as impressive as the rest of the park, but this ranks in my top three mountain temples in South Korea for sure!
Happy Trekking!
-Aurora
