Nov 10, 20202 min read

Hallasan Yeongsil Trail in Autumn

Written by : Cecilia Torres Quiroz for Korea Wanderers

This time, I will introduce you guys to one of the most famous tracks to explore Hallasan National Park in Autumn.

Hallasan is a shield volcano on Jeju Island in South Korea. The area around the mountain is a designated national park, the Hallasan National Park (Korean: 한라산국립공원). It is considered one of the highest mountains in South Korea.

Geodesic coordinates:

33.3617° N, 126.5292° E

Elevation: 1947m

Last eruption: 1007

Province: Jeju-do

Location: Jeju-do, South korea

Listed as P1500 or Ultra-prominent peak

Hallasan – Yeongsil Trail (한라산-영실코스)

Situated on the peak of Hallasan Mountain is Baengnokdam Crater Lake(백록담) which was formed by volcanic eruptions. The circumference of the lake is approximately 1.7km. The lake is about 110meters in-depth and some 0.24m2 in width. The name Baengnokdam originated from the legend that an otherworldly man on a white deer descended from heaven and drank water at the lake. It can be observed from Witsaeoreum (윗세오름) at 1714 m.

Yeongsil Trail (한라산-탐방로 or 한라산-영실코스) is around 5.8Km starting from Yeongsil Management Office (alttitude 1280m) to South Cliff junction. Usually it takes about 4hours for one-way trip.

This course is close to seogwipo district, so taken as reference the city center (사귀포시청), it takes one hour by bus (1 transfer), and the other cheap option, if you have an international driver license, is to rent an electrical car. Just be sure to arrive there before 11 am, if not you won’t be able to hike that day. xD

🤣If you find one of these, definitely you are not lost...ㅋㅋㅋ🤣

Me and my friend, we walked an extra km, because we left the car far from this initial point. But just say:

Initial point at 1280m

Following the road, the first part take us through the forest, where the ascending is gradual over wooden steps. Passing by there, it is inevitable taking pictures.

This part is called “소나무 숲의 바람소리”, because when you pass through it the sound of the wind and leaf moving together can create an harmonic melody (depends on the person xD, could be chaotic for others)

After the forest, it is mostly arid and short vegetation. Especially this month, since everything started to turn red. Another important part here, it is how clean we can appreciate rock formation.

Along the track, we found a signal and information about road distances, names of places, and location of first aid things (just in case😝). Continuing our track, we reached the way up, where we passed through track between pines (no that high)

On the upside, there was some Scenic Spot, where you could get a better picture of this grand mountain. From there, you can get a picture like this 😋(In the panel).

Then finally we reached the main point at 1714msnm. According to the map, from this point it is impossible, to keep going up to the volcano. But, it is possible to continue and descent from another route. (Let’s do this later😙)