Mountains make up seventy percent of the Korean Peninsula’s geographical landscape. Although the largest of these mountains are in North Korea, South Korea has several large and scenic mountains of its own, many of which have attained National Park status. Although I had lived in Korea previously, at that time I had only gone on a few, mostly local, hikes. During this, my second visit, I hoped to hike more, but had not originally planned on it reaching the scale it has. As time passed, a goal to visit all 16 Mountain National Parks and climb their highest accessible peaks began to come together. Since then another park has been added and is included below on the list of all seventeen National Parks with a link to the blog post for that park.
The rating scale is from 1 to 3. For the difficulty rating, ▶▷▷ means it is an easy trail while ▶▶▶ means it is among the more challenging of Korean hikes. For the overall rating ▶▷▷ means that the park is in my opinion less impressive while ▶▶▶ was reserved for my favorite five parks.
BUKHANSAN (북한산) Difficulty Rating: ▶▶▷ Overall Rating: ▶▶▶
CHIAKSAN (치악산) Difficulty Rating: ▶▶▷ Overall Rating: ▶▷▷
DEOGYUSAN (덕유산 ) Difficulty Rating: ▶▶▶ Overall Rating: ▶▷▷
GAYASAN (가야산 ) Difficulty Rating: ▶▷▷ Overall Rating: ▶▷▷
GYERYONGSAN (계룡산) Difficulty Rating: ▶▶▷ Overall Rating: ▶▶▷
HALLASAN (한라산) Difficulty Rating: ▶▶▶ Overall Rating: ▶▷▷
JIRISAN (지리산) Difficulty Rating: ▶▶▶ Overall Rating: ▶▶▶
JUWANGSAN (주왕산) Difficulty Rating: ▶▷▷ Overall Rating: ▶▷▷
MUDEUNGSAN (무등산) Difficulty Rating: ▶▷▷ Overall Rating: ▶▷▷
NAEJANGSAN (내장산) Difficulty Rating: ▶▷▷ Overall Rating: ▶ ▶▷
ODAESAN (오대산) Difficulty Rating: ▶▷▷ Overall Rating: ▶ ▶▷
SEORAKSAN (설악산) Difficulty Rating: ▶▶▶ Overall Rating: ▶▶▶
SOBAEKSAN (소백산) Difficulty Rating: ▶▷▷ Overall Rating: ▶ ▶▷
SONGNISAN (속리산) Difficulty Rating: ▶▷▷ Overall Rating: ▶ ▶▷
TAEBAEKSAN (태백산) Difficulty Rating: ▶▶▷ Overall Rating: ▶▶▶
WOLCHUSLAN (월출산) Difficulty Rating: ▶▶▶ Overall Rating: ▶▶▶
WORAKSAN (월악산) Difficulty Rating: ▶▶▷ Overall Rating: ▶▶▷
Below is the the list of the twenty-five highest peaks in South Korea, though I will mention now that I do not entirely agree with this list as many of the peaks mentioned are really just complementary peaks.
1 Hallasan, Jeju-do 1,950 m
2 Cheonhwangbong, Jirisan 1,915 m
3 Jungbong, Jirisan 1,875 m
4 Jeseokbong, Jirisan 1,806 m
5 Habong*, Jirisan 1,781 m
6 Banyabong, Jirisan 1,734 m
7 Daecheongbong, Seoraksan 1,708 m
8 Chotdaebong, Jirisan 1,704 m
9 Yeonghabong, Jirisan 1,667 m
10 Yeongshinbong, Jirisan 1,652 m
11 Sseoribong, Jirisan 1,642 m
12 Hyangjeokbong, Deogyusan 1,614 m
13 Jungbong, Deogyusan 1,594 m
14 Myeongsongbong, Jirisan 1,586 m
15 Taebaeksan, Taebaeksan 1,567 m
16 Birobong, Odaesan 1,563 m
17 Munsubong, Taebaeksan 1,547 m
18 Tokkibong, Jirisan 1,534 m
19 Deokpyeongbong, Jirisan 1,522 m
20 Nam Deogyusan, Deogyusan 1,507 m
21 Nogodan, Jirisan 1,507 m
22 Muryongsan, Deogyusan 1,492 m
23 Samgakbong, Jirisan 1,462 m
24 Bangtaesan 1,444 m
25 Birobong, Sobaeksan 1,439 m
This site shares my experiences hiking some of South Korea’s mountains, if you are looking for more specific information I recommend visiting some of the sites on my blogroll which were a valuable resource to me as I hiked through Korea’s National Parks.
KOREAN MOUNTAINS 