In August 2024, I finally got the opportunity to hike this little known section of Seoraksan National Park: Gombaeryeom (곰배령). Gom-bae-ryeong is a small section of the park southeast of the main area which offers a loop trail which brings you to one of South Korea’s most famous natural wildflower fields.
This hike can be done as a there and back at 10.2km with about 500-550 meters elevation gain, or as a 10.5km loop with 610 meters elevation gain. Overall, I consider it an easy hike for its distance, but with sections of moderate difficulty.
Why Hike Gombaeryeong?
Gombaeryeong mountain pass is a wildflower hot spot, with 800+ plant species spread out across this mountain area. From April to October, each month has different flowers dominating the peak’s open field area. This hike also offers the unique experience of being able to stop in a small mountain town on the trail, that is inaccessible to vehicles. Here you can enjoy Makgeolli and a simple meal.
Hiking Gombaeryeomg (곰배령)
Gombaeryeong (곰배령) is a loop course, or there and back which takes you through the least visited section of Seoraksan National Park. This section is south of the main area of the park, and can only be hiked from this starting point with a reservation.
The major highlights of the course are Gangseon Village (강선마을) and the peak open field area.
Starting Times, Fire Closures and Convenient Lodging Options:
There are two open sessions of this trail, divided by the fall and spring fire closures. The entry time available for each section must be followed closely, and differ between the low and high seasons. If you reserve for 9am and arrive at 10:15am they will likely refuse entry. However, when I booked for 11am and arrived at 10:05 on a Wednesday they checked my ID and simply let me in then, but this is likely a product of it being a weekday and there were many openings, since this goes against the ‘official rules’.
- You must bring a form of identification (Passport or ARC) as the name on your registration will be checked against your ID. You don’t need to provide proof of registration, as they have a printed list with your name on it prepared. This differs from other national park registrations, such as for the shelters and other trails, that require you have their QR code ready to scan.
The best way to avoid the chance of missing your time slot is to stay in Sokcho – In particular for this trip, I would recommend staying in downtown Sokcho near or on the beach. I’ve previously stayed at the Blue Door Hostel, a cheap hostel by the beach, and enjoyed my experience there. However, The House Hostel gets rave reviews and you can get a double bed in a private room for a great rate. For a step up in quality by staying in a nicer hotel, without it breaking the bank like the beachside Ramada, you have to go with the Sea Cruise Hotel, which has fantastic ocean views in a downtown location, with all the western comforts.
| High Season (4. 21. ~ 10. 31.) | 9am · 10am · 11am |
|---|---|
| Low Season (12. 16. ~ 2. 28.) | 10am · 11am |
Making a reservation:
You can’t make a reservation for the trail for a Monday or Tuesday. The reservation system is first come first serve, for the first 450 people per day, broken up across the various entry times. You can reserve at most 1 month in advance, with the highest demand for weekends and during the fall. You must reserve ahead of time, and can’t do same day reservations,
This trail has its own website for making reservations, which can be found here. It requires that you make an account for this site, with identity verification, so having a Korean phone number is required.
The Hiking Course
This is an unusual course for two major reasons;
(1) There are direction restrictions. The blue easier course showed below is the valley course that’s brings you to Gangseon Village, and it is the only course that you can go up along. You can also descent down this course. While the red course is the more difficult course, and can only be taken down to the entrance. So you can hike as either a counterclockwise loop or as a there and back on the blue valley course.
(2) You must turn in the red plastic card you receive when entering the park. The number written on each card is assigned to you, and you must return in by 4pm (regardless of your start time). You are also required to show it when requested, which occurs at the staffed bridge immediately after the village restaurants at 2.2km into the hike.
The Hike
The first 2.2km of the trail follows closely along a river on a dirt road, which is accessible only to locals of the Gangseon Village and the forest government workers.
It’s the easiest section of the hike, and potentially you could take younger kids here and turn around at the restaurants for a river nature trail experience. However, if that’s of interest, I would recommend Seoraksan’s Heulrimgol River Valley Trail over this one, for it is more dramatically beautiful, doesn’t require a reservation and has more amenities. See pictures of that trail below
Back to the Hike!
Continuing on you reach the Gangseon village restaurants, and the check-in bridge immediately afterwards.
After crossing the bridge and showing your red card to the forest government officer, the proper hiking section of the course begins and its 2.9km until the peak area.
It’s worth noting that if you do the loop course, the mountain pass this course is famous for, is not the peak. The red more difficult descending only course, has higher points. However, there isn’t any stone or marker to signify you reached that peak.
The eating area is the ‘peak viewpoint’ and attracts even people only interested in doing the there and back on the blue course, as eating is prohibited at the mountain pass field area. This lunch area is located 150 meter up the red trail, with signs pointing it out.
This map isn’t marked like the standard national park maps, but if I was to assign it difficulty rankings, I would say it’s first green being easy, and this hiking section being orange for medium. It’s a decent amount of incline, with the majority occurring in the 2.9km post-village section.
However, reaching Gombaeryeong mountain pass makes the trip worth it. While other peaks in the area have sweeping views with granite outcroppings, this area is more of a subtly beauty. With wildflowers that my photos don’t do justice.
This field area is complete with boardwalks which keep hikers out of the fields. There is also a peak stone which people queue up to take a picture with, but this point is not on any Korean hiking challenge, so the picture is simply for your memories.
After enjoying the wildflowers, you can (A) descent back down the way you came, (B) go up to the rest/eating area, or (C) do the red descent.
I opted to do lunch then the red descent, and ultimately I would recommend just going back the Blue valley course. This is because while the red course offers a more traditional hiking experience, besides the lunch area there are no extra views and you miss out on going to the village restaurants again, which were much more appealing on the descent than prior to hiking up the mountain.
The Red Course Descent
There’s not much to add here—the trail has a few rough spots and decent maintenance, but it doesn’t compare to most national park trails. There are a few benches, and the trail is clearly marked.
The last one kilometer runs opposite the stream as the ascent trail, and has you exiting just meters from the main entrance. At the main entrance there will be an employee waiting to take back your red plastic card.
Because I came down the red trail, it means I missed the mid-mountain restaurants. So for food I opted to eat at the in the parking lot restaurant which was very small and fine. They did have a very beautiful potato pancake, and turns out this mountain has its makgollie – which of course I had to sample.
Happy Trekking!
-Aurora
