Autumn has arrived in Jeju with the trees quickly changing colors to welcome the new season. Now is the perfect time to climb Mt. Halla to see the falling leaves and breathe in Jeju’s fresh air.
There are 7 trails to Hallasan: Eorimok trail, Yeongsil trail, Seongpanak trail, Gwaneumsa trail, Donnaeko trail, Eoseungsaengak trail, and Seokgulam trail.
On October 22, three members of our Jeju Tourism Organization marketing team hiked up Yeongsil trail and hiked down Eorimok trail.
To get to Yeongsil trail by bus: Go to Jeju Intercity Bus Terminal and take the Jungmun-bound bus. Going on route 1100, it takes about 50 minutes.
We have to do a pre-hike before actually reaching the entrance to Yeongsil Trail.
Yeongsil trail’s entrance is 1,280 meters above sea level. You need to enter Yeongsil trail by 2pm or else you are not allowed to go up (since it will take at a couple of hours to go down and it will be too dark to see anything).
Yeongsil trail has a beautiful view of the changing leaves. It’s a good exercise with its rocky steps and wooden stairs.
Along the way, there are resting spots where you can take pictures of the scenery.
Hallasan is a painting of many colors, composing of red and gold autumn leaves, silver eulalia grass, pink flowers and blue wild berries.
It can be a tiring hike, but what a view!
After almost 3 hours of hiking (we paused a lot for pictures and rest), we reached Witsae-Oreum Shelter. There, we ate ramen. They also sell snacks and water. But keep in mind that Hallasan is a trash-free site, so you have to take all trash with you.
After lunch and a bit of rest, it was time to hike down. We took the Eorimok trail for a change of scenery. It was also less strenuous then the Yeongsil trail.
Eorimok trail has a relatively relaxing path for the most part, with wooden walkways and short steps. The landscape is mostly of shrubs and short trees, and an endless expanse of blue sky. At certain rest points, you can even look down at the clouds because we were still relatively high up.
As we get closer to the end of Eorimok trail, tall trees and colorful autumn leaves greeted us again. The path also became rockier and harder to walk.
But once we reached the bridge, the end point was almost in sight.
It was a beautiful day for hiking, and I hope that you will be able to climb Hallsan and see the autumn leaves.
