http://blogs.bootsnall.com/skookum On visiting National Parks and other wild areas in South Korea Thu, 26 Jan 2006 03:25:52 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The park is just a short taxi or bus ride from downtown Gumi. There's a tourist village with dozens of restaurants - that's just above a lake where one can rent duck boats. Above the tourist village, the road leads to a parking lot for the ... http://blogs.bootsnall.com/skookum/geumosan-prov-park-gumi-gyeongsang-buk-do.html Gyeongpo Provincial Park is in Gangneung City, Gangwon-do. It lies along the coast and includes Gyeongpo Lake. Its area is 9.471 square kms and it was established on June 26, 1982. I visited this park on November 9-10, 2005. Gyeongpo Lake is 4.35 kms. in circumference. ... http://blogs.bootsnall.com/skookum/gyeongpo-provincial-park-kangwon-do.html This is a description of a trip I did at the beginning of May in 2005: On Monday I got a bus to Chungju (no, that's not the same as Cheongju where I went last week, even though it's in the same province of Chungcheong buk-do.) And from there got a ... http://blogs.bootsnall.com/skookum/woraksan-national-park-deokjusa-to-the-mountaintop.html As the autumn days shortened and the leaves thinned on the trees I accelerated my travel schedule to visit as many places as possible before winter set in. At the end of October an overnighter to Hwayang was one of these trips. I wasn't sure public transport went ... http://blogs.bootsnall.com/skookum/songnisan-national-park-hwayang-valley.html In October I just stopped by overnight on my way elsewhere - hadn't been here before but autumn sounded like a good time to visit. From Wonju took a local bus to Guryeongsa on the north side of the park. The temple is a bit of a ... http://blogs.bootsnall.com/skookum/chiaksan-national-park-guryeongsa.html This year I've been to the Songni Valley twice: in Spring blossom time and in Autumn leaves time. This from my April diary: I got an early bus from Cheongju and got off at the tourist village below Popchusa, a very ornate Buddhist temple in Songnisan National Park. Had a ... http://blogs.bootsnall.com/skookum/songnisan-national-park-songni-valley-beopjusa.html Jung-do is an island in the lake on the west side of Chuncheon. There are a couple of restaurants, and there's cabins for rent. The south end is wooded, farther north there's a maintained lawn. We stayed in one of the cabins. They run about 50,000 ... http://blogs.bootsnall.com/skookum/jung-do-park-chuncheon.html I took the local bus to the tourist village at the South end of the park. Mungyeong SaeJae is a Provincial Park located right on the western border of Mungyeong-shi, in Gyeongsang buk-do. I walked up through the village. Near the park's entrance is a large ... http://blogs.bootsnall.com/skookum/mungyeong-saejae-provincial-park.html This was just a short trip- stayed in Cheongsong overnight and then went up to the Juwangsan National Park. This is one of Korea's more isolated and less-visited parks. Started up a valley after a visit to the temple next to the entrance booth. Went up ... http://blogs.bootsnall.com/skookum/juwangsan-national-park.html South Korea has twenty National Parks. There are also Provincial Parks, forest recreational areas, local parks, and interesting and scenic area with no particular protected status. There are hundreds of interesting islands off the coasts, ranging from tiny to quite large. There are many hiking trails in ... http://blogs.bootsnall.com/skookum/welcome-to-wild-korea.html