Doraksan hike info

Doraksan is only 965 m, but you touch granite the whole way up. From the Sangseonam trailhead the ridge over Jebong and Hyeongbong is rock strung with iron stairs and fixed ropes, and people who came expecting an easy hill end up catching their breath on the steps. The name is said to come from the Joseon scholar Song Si-yeol, who called it a mountain of the joy of understanding.

In autumn the crags redden between the pines. From knobs of rock along the ridge you look out over layered Danyang ranges and down into the Seonam valley. On the way down, Chaeunbong and Geombong give you a view back across the line you climbed. Sangseonam is a small hermitage tucked beside the stream below the ridge.

Most people loop from the Sangseonam car park. The climb is short, but the rock sections slow you down, and the stone is slick after rain. Near the top the wind runs colder than in the valley, so carry a light layer.

From Seoul (BUS)

From Busan, Daegu and elsewhere (BUS)

To the trailhead (LOC)