Hiking Dobongsan in Bukhansan National Park (Sinseondae Summit) & Dogani Suyuk Jeongol

There was a time when meeting people on holidays and eating delicious food was what I enjoyed most, but at some point, I started to like hiking, where I could clear my mind and feel nature. I came to understand why people say that climbing mountains makes both your body and mind healthier. While hiking, I always feel so good that I think, “I should do this again next week,” but when next week actually comes.... it is a little ironic that I do not easily end up going hiking, yet there is no doubt that the moment I am hiking is incredibly enjoyable.

At the end of autumn, I went to Dobongsan in Bukhansan National Park.

Since it was snowing, I want to share the day I went to Bukhansan National Park’s Dobongsan, which was beautiful with clear weather and autumn leaves.

Bukhansan

It lies along the boundary between northern Seoul and Goyang, Gyeonggi-do, and is a famous mountain included among the Five Great Mountains of Korea. Its three peaks—Baegundae, Insubong, and Mangyeongdae—are arranged in a large triangle, which is why it was called Samgaksan from the Goryeo Dynasty, and after the Japanese colonial period it began to be called Bukhansan. Among the mountains near Seoul, it is the highest and has a magnificent landscape, so it has long been called the main mountain of Seoul.

People say Bukhansan is a rocky mountain and a difficult one to climb. But because of that, once you make it to the summit, its beautiful scenery makes you forget how hard the climb was.

The sky was so clear, and the autumn colors were so beautiful, that I kept admiring the surroundings as I climbed.

Today’s goal was the Sinseondae summit of Dobongsan in Bukhansan National Park. There were no easy sections on the way up to the summit, and just before reaching the top, an even tougher section came into view: stairs and rocky ridges leading to the summit!!

Because it was a section where I had to hold the guardrail well and climb carefully, I was a little scared at first, but the sense of accomplishment when I made it was surprisingly thrilling.

After climbing so hard, this is the 726-meter-high Sinseondae summit. The weather was nice, but there was fine dust, so the view was a little hazy, though I could still see far into the distance. The reason I end up hiking again is probably because of this breathtaking scenery at the summit, even though it is so hard to get there.

After a hike that was almost like climbing over rocks, I visited Baekdu Seolleongtang, a place that serves a real knuckle-bone soup, for my knees that must have suffered.

Baekdu Seolleongtang is located at Jangam Station, one stop away from Dobongsan Station by subway!! I ordered it hoping it would be really delicious, enough to travel all the way here, not even near Dobongsan.

Dogani suyuk jeongol does not come submerged in broth the way we might imagine; instead, it is served on a strainer, so it feels almost like steamed food. Dogani suyuk jeongol, one of Baekdu Seolleongtang’s signature dishes, looks generous the moment you see it.

Because this place uses steamed knuckle-bone cartilage, once you try it, you can feel such an incredible chewiness that it is hard to eat cartilage anywhere else. On top of that, mushrooms, bean sprouts, and cabbage are served together, so what more can I say if you eat them as a side? It is practically a nourishing dish for the knee joints that worked so hard during the hike.

As the name jeongol suggests, a rich broth with no additives is served under the strainer, so you can either dip the cartilage into the broth and eat it or enjoy the steamed dish itself with sauce, which was nice.

Still, eating it without dipping it into the broth seemed to let me feel the chewiness more.