Ulsanbawi Rock

Ulsanbawi is a ridge of six bare granite domes rising to 873 metres at the outer edge of Seoraksan, the rock itself some two hundred metres high and about four kilometres round, and from a distance it reads as a single cracked wall of stone. The walk in from Sogongwon is gentle for the first hour, past the great bronze Buddha and Sinheungsa temple, then climbs to Heundeulbawi - a rocking boulder that visitors push at, which moves slightly and never falls - and Gyejoam, a hermitage built into a rock hollow. After that comes the part people remember: a staircase of over eight hundred steel steps switchbacking up the exposed face of the rock, with drops on both sides and a queue on it most weekends. The top is a platform between the domes with the East Sea on one side and the inner Seorak ridges on the other. The legend explaining the name involves the rock walking from Ulsan to join Geumgangsan and stopping here when it heard the list was full.

The landscape

• The eight hundred steps - the steel stairway up the rock face.
• Heundeulbawi - the rocking boulder people push at.
• Gyejoam hermitage - the shrine built into the rock hollow.
• The summit platform - East Sea one way, inner Seorak the other.

When to go

May to June, and October for the autumn colour Seoraksan is famous for - that month brings enormous crowds and queues on the stairway. Winter closes sections in ice.

Good to know

The stairway is exposed, steep and busy - not for anyone with a fear of heights, and genuinely slow when queued. Park fee applies. Autumn weekends mean packed buses from Sokcho.

Nearby

Biryong Falls and Sinheungsa are in the same valley; Sokcho and its fish market are twenty minutes away.

Key facts