Going Up?

Its Chuseok time in Korea. Chuseok is Korea's version of Thanksgiving. A time when families come together and show respect for their elders, eat and have fun. Being that my elders are on another continent, I am taking this 6 day break to visit Seoraksan Mountain in Northeast Korea.

Buddha. Mountain. Buddha. Mountain. Buddha... well you get the idea. In Korea you pretty much can't have one without the other. Two peaceful things that go hand in hand.

Before you get very far into the park you are greeted by giant Buddha statue and temple. For about $10 you can write a wish or greeting on a roof tile and leave it here at the site.... not sure what happens then, but I think good luck is involved.

This view looks out at the beginning of the trail through the entrance of another buddhist temple. Many families went hiking together and I liked watching these kids running to catch up with theirs.

As for me, this is the first of many self portrait shots that I took... until I got to the top of the mountain and some Korean retirees decided to do a photo shoot of me... Korean style.

As the hike day began it was a bit foggy and cool. The clouds were sitting around the peaks, and making the already cloudy white rocks look even more surreal.

Another temple about 2/3 the way to the top or roughly two hours into the hike. The last hour of the hike required a lot of stairs as you near the top.... mainly because you can only rock climb or use stairs to climb up the bouldery peak..... naturally I was taking the stairs. Trust me, they were scary enough.

Artwork kept coming to mind as I climbed the mountain. Both images of traditional asian water color paintings and of Japanese animation movies like Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away. Everywhere you turned was an image ready to be captured. All the elements, the rocks, trees, water and sky existing perfectly together, as you think they always have.

Sweaty... but nearly there. Once I got to the top a group of about 20 Koreans (couples in their 60's) were relaxing there on the small rock peak. I asked one to take my picture, but a regular shot was apparently not "Korean" enough. So they spiced it up with the addition of one of their hiking hats, the ever popular "peace" fingers and instead of saying cheese, people here say.... you guessed it "KIM CHEEEEE!" Cute huh?

The clouds headed out in the late afternoon and my hike down the mountain was sunny and much more relaxing... and even included a free snickers from a family I met going down. Pretty good day over all.

The story of the mountain I climbed, Ulsanbawi, is written on a sign along the trail. I really enjoyed the legend of how this rock came to be a mountain.