I saw the most beautiful natural sights of South Korea on Jeju Island. That’s not necessarily surprising because I didn’t exactly go chasing waterfalls during my time on the mainland of the country, but it does say something about Jeju Island; namely that a visit to the island isn’t complete without seeing its nature.

Waterfalls

Similar to my previous post about the cultural sights of the island, I saw all these sights during the three trips I took with Yeha Tour. Let’s start with waterfalls, I love seeing waterfalls! I wonder if there will ever be a day that I grow tired of them.

Jeonbang Falls

Jeonbang Falls is the only waterfall in Asia which falls directly into the sea. In this case, Jeju Island has definitely deserved its bragging rights. We visited this waterfall on my first day on the island, so I was super impressed. Little did I know that this would straightaway be one of the most beautiful waterfalls on Jeju, especially from a distance.

It’s also beautiful when you walk down the stairs and see it from below. The only problem is that there are dozens of people posing in front of the waterfall and trying to take selfies. It’s almost impossible to take a photo with no people in it, so instead I took a photo of a stranger posing in front of the waterfall.

On the way down, there are some lady divers (I described the profession in my previous post) who sell fish. So if you’re not on a tour it might be worth to stock up on your fresh fish supply.

I visited the Jeonbang Falls as part of the Yeha Tour of the south of the island.

Cheonjeyeon Falls

To be honest, I’m confused by these waterfalls. Personally, due to the signage at the park, I thought the waterfall which is dry most of the year is the Cheonjeyeon waterfall.

Honestly, that’s the direction the sign was pointing to when it said Cheonjeyeon.

The most beautiful waterfall I saw at that park was called “the 2nd waterfall” on the sign.

There’s a third waterfall in the park which we didn’t have time for unfortunately. When I read on Google about this waterfall I read that it originates from a cave and cascades down three tiers. Surely, the waterfall I thought was Cheonjeyeon is not actually Cheonjeyeon because there’s no water; or is it the last tier and because of the limited amount of water it’s dry? If anyone knows, please leave the answer in the comments below, because I’m clueless!

Regardless, the “2nd waterfall” as it’s apparently called is beautiful!

I visited the Cheonjeyeon Falls as part of the Yeha Tour of the west of the island.

Rock Formations

That was all in terms of waterfalls. I’m looking forward to my trip to Iceland in November to spot more. Let’s move on to rock formations. Jeju is a volcanic island, so the fact that there are rocky formations should not come as a surprise. I have visited two notable rock formations – that’s actually a lie because there are some more rock formations and volcanoes I visited but they will feature in the hiking trail section of this post.

Manjanggul Lava Tube

The Manjanggul Lava Tube is one of the three UNESCO sights I visited on the island. This cave or lave tube, which sounds much more exciting, is 23m in breadth and 30m in height. So there’s no claustrophia concerns in this tube. The total length is around 13 km, which puts this tube in the top 10 of the world. There are three openings and only no. 2 is open to the public, so that’s the one I visited. You can walk 1 km into the tube and 1 km back. It’s chilly and eerie and I liked it! It’s not slippery and it’s easy to walk which made me like it even more.

At the end of the walking path there’s a huge lava column.

Come to think of it, I think this lava tube on Jeju Island is the first of its kind I have visited! It’s always fun to explore new things!

I visited the Manjanggul Lava Tubes as part of the Yeha Tour of the east of the island.

Jusanjeolli

Something I have seen before are the hexagonal basalt columns lining the ocean. Early readers might remember my visit to the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland, I was surprised to find a similar sight on the other side of the world!

If I would have to choose between the two sights, I would choose the one in Northern Ireland, simply because there are more of the volcanic columns and you are allowed to clamber around them. The ones on Jeju Island have to be enjoyed from a distance, which does provide better photo opportunities.

I visited Jusanjeolli as part of the Yeha Tour of the south of the island.

Miscellaneous

I have put the one miscellaneous natural sight I visited on the island before the hiking trails, because I’d like to finish with one of my favourite sights and not with this silly trick-eye thing.

Mysterious Road

The mysterious road gets its name from the fact that due to the landscape it looks like this road is an upwards hill, but actually (and the bus driver proved this by stopping the bus and letting it roll) this is a descending hill.

Even the tour guide wasn’t really impressed with this sight. He said we would just stop here quickly and move on to the better sighs as soon as possible.

I visited Mysterious Road as part of the Yeha Tour of the south of the island.

Hiking Trails

I’ve almost reached the final section of this post and I’m well-aware I’ve been blabbering about the natural sights for ages. Stick with me for a little while longer, I’ll try to let the photos do the talking when it comes to the different hiking trails I visited on the island.

Mt Halla Eoseungsaengak Trail

I visited the Mt. Halla Eoseungsaengak Trail on my first day on the island.

I was still slightly jetlagged which I’ll use as an excuse as to why I didn’t manage to finish the hike to the top of the track. Luckily for me, when everyone joined me at the bottom of the trail I found out that this provides a pretty good picture of how much they were able to see up there.

Eoseungsaengak Trail is actually one of the shortest mountain trails in the area, it’s  only 1.3 km long. There are seven trails up and around the Hallasan volcano which is the second of three UNESCO sights of the island. Only two lead to the top of the volcano and they are apparently very tough; both around 10 km which will take people half a day. I was happy with the easiest hike.

If you’re there, be aware of the snakes. I saw this sign when I was already out of the forest….

I visited this trail as part of the Yeha Tour of the south of the island.

Suweolbong Track

Let Suweolbong be the example of the kind of hiking I like! It’s a completely straight coastal road.

Sure, danger is lurking on the other side of the road but where’s the fun without a little danger?

The best part of this rather short walk are the views into the sea where you can spot little volcanic islands:

But also the views on the other side are nice, where there’s water seeping out of the volcanic rock and where the Japanese have built tunnels.

I visited this track was part of the Yeha Tour of the west of the island.

Mt. Sanbang

That was enough relaxation. Mt. Sanbang was again a proper hike up steep steps. Our guide told us it should only take us 15 minutes, no way! It took me a lot of sweating and 30 minutes. Due to the fact the steps go along the mountain wall (again I think this mountain is made completely out of lava), the views over the ocean are great.

The top at 150 meters contains a cave with a buddha statue.

The bottom also contains a temple. Some tourists beat the buddhist drum, so I didn’t explore any further and left the scene of the crime as quickly as possible. I didn’t want to be compared with these hoodlums.

Seongsan Ilchulbong Peak

Seongsan Ilchulbong Peak is also known as Sunrise Peak. I found out why when I was walking up the stairs to the top. At two pm it was way too hot to do this hike. Actually, as the sun was beating down on us and I was tired of the three day tour I wasn’t planning on doing the hike.

The mountain was staring down at me though, and the Lonely Planet kept urging me it would be the best sight of the island. So I made my way up the steps. Every few minutes I took a breather on one of the many benches along the way. When I reached the top I felt like I had climbed Mount Everest, you can imagine my disappointment when I saw this sign.

The top is not even 200m high! This still adds up to walking many stairs, but you know.. It doesn’t sound very impressive.

This is the last one of the three UNESCO sights of the island because it’s actually a volcano. When you’ve reached the top, the view into the crater is gorgeous.

The view of the surrounding landscape is also beautiful and worth the hike.

It’s not a super easy hike, but it’s really worth it!

Conclusion

I shouldn’t really have to write a conclusion about this post, simply because I hope I proved my excitement about all the natural sights I’ve spotted on Jeju Island. If my two posts haven’t convinced you to visit Jeju Island when you’re staying in South Korea, I don’t know what would! I’ve stayed on Jeju Island for four nights. This post wraps up my stay there, and I will write about the coastal city Busan next in the south of the mainland of South Korea.