---
node: spot_sokcho_ulsanbawi
type: spot
slug: ulsanbawi
destination: dest_sokcho
title: "Ulsanbawi"
lead: "Ulsanbawi is a granite ridge of six peaks in Seoraksan, reached by a four-hour return walk that ends with 808 steel steps up the rock. From the top the East Sea and the ridges of the park lie on either side."
published: 2026-08-12
updated: 2026-08-12
image_file: spot_sokcho_ulsanbawi.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Seoraksan_National_Park_Korea_21.jpg"
image_author: "kallerna"
image_license: "CC BY-SA 4.0"
---

## Overview

The rock is a single mass of granite four kilometres around, and the local story has it walking to a gathering of mountains, arriving late and settling here — which is as good an account of a stray massif as geology's. The last section is a staircase bolted to the face, exposed but railed, and it is the part people underestimate. Below it stands Heundeulbawi, a boulder that rocks when pushed and does not fall.

## Highlights

Start before eight: the steps are one-way in width, and by mid-morning in autumn you queue on them. Take water and a windproof layer — the top is exposed and colder than the valley. The path to Heundeulbawi and Gyejoam hermitage is an hour and is worth doing even if you turn back there.