Things to see and do Parc National Seoraksan 설악산국립공원

The indoor Seorak is certainly less visited than the outdoor part, but it occupies most of the park and also offers beautiful walks. There are 2 main entrances: Baekdam to the northwest and Jangsudae to the southwest, in addition to the Namgyo and Ongnyotang entrances.

From the entrance of Baekdam Park, a path leads to the Baekdamsa Temple. It was originally built by Jajang in 647 during the reign of Queen Jindeok in Hwacheom. Because of conflicts with the hunters of the area, it was later moved to Hangyeri near Inje. There it suffered a mysterious series of destructive fires, the place was deemed to be a bad place and the temple was moved there. The fires continued until a monk had a dream in which he saw pools of water pouring over the temple. The temple was renamed 백담사 Baekdamsa ("the temple of a hundred pools") and all went well until the war. It was razed to the ground and partially rebuilt since then. It is best known for the monk-poet Han Yong-un, who lived there (very famous author at the beginning of the century of the collection Le Silence de Nim, translated by Autre Temps in French). Near the temple is a refuge open all year round. It is the largest of the mountain. From there one can reach the outdoor Seorak by paths.

From Jangsudae, one can reach the Daeseung waterfall, one of the 3 big falls of Korea (88 m). From there, we can go up to Daeseungnyeong from where 3 paths start. One of them goes north to Baekdamsa temple. Let yourself be carried away by the beauty of this park.