Gyeongju National Park | Hiking Mt. Namsan

Despite not bringing appropriate hiking gear/athletic shoes and despite a breakfast of jalepeno kettle chips, we decided that no camping glamping trip would be complete without at least one hike.

Hiking Namsan appealed to us because it sounded like a big bang for our buck sort of hike: short and scenic. Literally a walk in the park. As I typically constitute the ‘research’ department of trip planning, I convinced Sly that our simple day hike would take us no more than two hours and could be easily completed in what he had on: jeans and Vans.

I think we all know where this is heading…

Mangwolsa Temple

After we packed up our things we drove into town and followed the signs to Namsan. We drove up a spindly dirt road and parked in the first parking lot we saw. For such a popular attraction the parking lot was suspiciously empty. It was still early. Maybe we had beat the crowds.

We bundled up in multiple layers, strapped on our makeshift packs, and headed up the trail. A few side trails led to various Buddhist temples and shrines that while nice, did not seem to match up with the trail description I had quickly ‘researched’ online. After about 30 minutes of exploring I had the sinking sensation that we were on the wrong trail. We backtracked to the trail head, roamed around looking for the ‘real’ trail head, and then made the executive decision to get back in our car and continue driving until we found better signage.

Another ten minutes up the road was a huge parking lot — one that could easily accommodate multiple tour buses (though thankfully they had yet to arrive). This was obviously the correct parking lot for the trail we wanted to hike. We parked, crossed the street, picked up a paper map and were (finally) on our way.

The trail began easily enough on a paved surface past apple orchards.

A slight hill led us to a forest of wiry knotted trees through which we could make out the three royal tombs (Samneung).

Past the tombs we encountered our first (decapitated) Buddha statues. At least I think this was once a Buddha.

Namsan mountain is referred to as an “open air museum” because there are over a 100 Buddha statues either carved out of stone, hidden in caves, carved into the side of the mountain, or within covered temples or shrines. This was definitely our type of ‘museum.’

Off the main trail were steep steps leading up to carved Buddhas which would become the norm for this hike. The trial map we had pointed out the major sites by name, but visually we were never quite sure if what we were seeing was what was on the map. In addition, so many of the trails led to other trails/steps/detours that led to other sites not listed on the map. There were some signs posted on the trail — sometimes these matched up with the map, other times they did not.

I was tempted to stick my head in the headless spot…

Eventually we gave up on the map and the signs and ended up hiking up and down millions of steps, across dry river beds, past dripping caves, and then finally connected back to the main trail that only pointed in one direction: up.

find the three Buddhas

this Shakamuni Buddha was my favorite

After a good amount of huffing and puffing up the mountain we reached the Sangseonam Hermitage.

Persimmons dripped from the trees surrounding the hermitage.

We stopped to catch our breath and take in the view.

Behind the hermitage we met up with another series of steps and continued climbing…and climbing…and climbing…

Eventually the trail leveled out and the view opened up so that we felt as if we could see all of Gyeongju. Surely we had reached the peak…

Or had we?

While contemplating the view we heard a faint meow coming from the woods. We paused, confused, looked at one another and meowed back. Our meows were returned by an even stronger meow closer to us.

Would a cat be this high up the mountain? We were so confused.

Out of the woods and up the trail came a sweet orange tabby. He ran right up to us, meowing loudly and affectionately rubbing against our legs.

I couldn’t resist cuddling him.

He purred the moment I picked him up and nestled his head into my neck while he kneaded my arms.

I almost stuffed that kitty into my backpack and took him home.

We figured that the kitty most likely belonged to or was taken care of to some extent by the folks at the hermitage. And if he wasn’t taken care of by them then he certainly was by all the hikers that came up the trail. Every single person that encountered the kitty stopped to laugh, pet, or give him food or lunch scraps. He seemed well-fed and well-loved.

As we hiked on to the summit of Mt Geumobong (disappointing, skip it) we wondered what the chances were of finding a friendly kitty at the top of a mountain trail. We’d like to think it was not coincidental, that maybe it was a sign that we had good kitty karma. 🙂

The one Buddha that eluded us was the famous Maitreya Buddha carved into the side of the mountain. According to the map we should have passed it on our way up to the summit. We caught a glimpse of it from the trail back down from Mt. Geumobong but only through a clearing in the trees. What looked to be a path/viewing point had been roped off.

We backtracked to the hermitage, split up, and hiked for nearly an hour exploring all the paths that potentially led to Maitreya Buddha. No luck. After snapping at each other out of frustration we found a dinky paper sign on a roped off portion of the trail not too far from the hermitage. Using google translate we discovered that the trail to the Buddha was closed for the year due to a)some unstable rock or b)the Buddha was being repaired. Either way, the trail was closed.

Across from the closed section of the trail was a trail marker. It was then that I noticed that the arrow pointing to the trail /Buddha had been removed. WHY REMOVE THE TRAIL MARKER? WHY NOT PUT THE SIGN ON THE ARROW? SO FRUSTRATING.

Any good karma received on the trail was now lost to a sea of expletives.

As we hiked back down the trail we stopped to take a breath, clear our minds, and let our frustrations go.

Frustrations aside, this was one of our favorite trails we’ve hiked in Korea. While we have hiked many trails that passed through or beside Buddhist temples or hermitages but never have we hiked a trail with so many different types of Buddhist statues.

Or a trail that led us to a ranger kitty that greeted us at the top of the mountain.

DETAILS

Mt. Namsan Samneung Valley Trailhead | LOCATION: From Gyeongju follow the signs to Samneung Valley. There is a huge parking lot across from the trail head along with various visitor’s centers and toilets. Parking in the lot was about 2,000KRW. | DESCRIPTION: approximately 2-2.5 hr round trip hike through a valley to the summit, not including all the side trips to see Buddhas not listed on the trail map. Typical of Korean parks, the trail consists of a series of wooden or stone steps and mostly groomed or wooden path. The trail itself is relatively short, but it is steep. The “faux summit” is a good place to eat your picnic lunch. Skip the actual summit, there’s not much to see. | TIP: Bring a pen! At Badukbawl Rock look for the wooden mailbox. Inside the mailbox you can find FREE postcards that you can send for FREE! Write your message on the card and put it in the slot. We wrote as many as we could for what addresses we could remember — everyone told us they received them in a couple week’s time!