Hiking venture number one

Time to drop some knowledge:

Seoul is surrounded by mountains. In fact, South Korea is about 340% mountains.

On Saturday, I went with a few friends to Bukhansan Park to go hiking. Guys, the park is so close, you can take the subway and then walk to the trail head. DC, take note.

We met up at 8:00am and started the trek. We gained elevation pretty quickly.

This was one of approximately three flat portions of the trek.

Seoul. It's massive.

This park has many peaks. We were able to summit three during this trip.

Destination: Up.

Peak #1 (can't recall the name)

Peak #2 (Bibong) in the foreground.

Top of Bibong by a tablet with Chinese characters on it.

I'll be honest...I can't remember what the significance of this tablet is. But it's pretty cool.

"Hyun" carved into the rock.

Peak #3 (again, can't remember the name) on the left. We went up there, but for some reason, I didn't take many pictures of the view.

At this point, it was around noon and we decided to wrap things up. We started heading down and saw some signs for "Seungasa Temple." I loved seeing the Buddhist temples the last time I was in Asia, so I was excited to see a few during my sojourn.

This first temple did not disappoint.

The detail is incredible.

This Buddha carving may have been made as early as the 10th century.

Born in the year of the ox, baby. The rest of the staircase had other Chinese Zodiac animals.

"Kids. Hands. Watch 'em."

Great discovery, great day. I'm definitely looking forward to doing more of this, especially since the weather is warming up.