I think it was the first Saturday in October I went to Seoraksan with Jongsoo and his aunt. It was very beautiful, but I'll let the pictures do most of the talking.
We had to get up at the waistband of dawn - so early it wasn't even the buttcrack of dawn. And drove about 2 hours maybe 3 to the north.
This is before ascending, just after entering the park.
As with any beautiful place in Korea, there are temples here.
The summit is far, up and away. I forget how many kilometers, but it's a very long hike... hours. We bought a cable car ticket instead. You have to wait a few hours before you can ride it, so we hiked in the meantime.
Another temple on the way.
It was such a beautiful day, albeit the morning was chilly. 
Hiking you will often see rocks stacked on rocks. I heard there is a belief that if you can balance a rock on one of these, you will get your wish.
Sometimes the road/path was packed dirt, other times wood (for steps or bridges) but sometimes it was these stones. It makes hiking more challenging I think.
The trees did not disappoint.
From the cable car, you can appreciate the rock face of the mountain. I was glad this cable car was more steady than the Namsan Tower cable car. We didn't rock very much. Whew.
A selca after getting off the cable car. You can't see the view for the trees.
And so we ascended.
Up, up, up!
I'm making a terrible face here. It's partly due to sun in my eyes, but mostly due to being uncomfortable sitting that close to the edge. Jongsoo was all "let's get closer" and I was "definitely and certainly not!"
The view behind me.
The flag up there marks the summit.
I didn't go up there because to get there you have to shimmy along a ledge while holding on to nothing but a rope and to make matters more uncomfortable there are all these people in front of you and behind you. Yeah. I don't want to be pushed off the mountainside! So Jongsoo went while his aunt and I waited.
Waiting was fine because the view up here is fantastic. And there was a chipmunk scurrying around! Too cute.
I forget the name of the town. It's the closest one to the mountain... hmm. Anyway it's pretty.
In the opposite direction there is nothing but mountain faces. You could sit and stare for ages.
I'm pretty sure this guy did.
When Jongsoo came back from the summit, we all went back down via cable car. There's almost no wait to descend. Lol. Once we got back down, J found the orangest tree and had to have a picture.
So there you have it.
