Prior Posting: Sangwonsa Temple

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After spending a little bit over an hour at Sangwonsa Temple resting and checking the place out, I then proceeded to head down the mountain to the village of Seongnam-ri where my wife was going to pick me up.  From Sangwonsa Seongnam-ri was only 5.2 kilometers away and best yet, it was all down hill from here:

As you can see on the map below I had started my hike on the far north of the park where I walked to Guryongsa Temple before making the steep hike up to the 1,288 meter summit of Birobong Peak which is Chiaksan’s highest point.  From there I then walked the entire ridge line of the mountain to Sangwonsa.  At the end of the trail in a southern valley of the park is Seongnam-ri village:

The trail that leads down the mountain from Sangwonsa follows a pleasantly flowing creek of water:

This water comes from the same water I was drinking back at the temple.  In many areas along the trail down the mountain the creek has a number of small waterfalls:

About 4 kilometers down the mountain is where the trail turned into a little road that ran parallel to the creek:

I could tell I was nearing the end of the road as a few farm houses with some abundant crops due to all the water came into view:

This was the outskirts of the village of Seongnam-ri.  Here is my final view looking back towards the top of the mountain that Sangwonsa sits before the mountain went out of view:

Further down this dirt road eventually some restaurants came into view:

All these buildings were constructed to like traditional Gangwon-do style with its wooden shingle roofs.  Besides the few restaurants in Seongnam-ri, there was also a few tea houses as well:

Just a short walk passed the village I came to the National Park entrance where my wife was waiting to pick me up:

All in all covering the total of about 20 kilometers across the entire Chiaksan National Park took me about 9 hours and fortunately the weather was great all day.  Even though Lonely Planet may not recommend it, it is possible to hike the whole trail in one day.  If you are into hiking I highly recommend checking out Chiaksan.  Just a day trip to check out Guyongsa Temple and then climbing to the top of Birobong would be a great day out.

Here is directions to get to the park from the local bus station:

In front of Wonju Station, take city bus No. 41 bound for Guryongsa Temple (40 min ride), No. 21 bound for Geumdaeri or Seongnam-ri (30 min ride), or No. 82 bound for Hwang-gol (30 min ride). Get off at the entrance of Mt. Chiaksan.

Keep in mind that all these park entrances are also easily accessible by taxi as well since it so close to Wonju.  If anyone has any questions about visiting the park as always feel free to ask away in the comments section.