Hoamsan

Tucked between Gwanak-gu and Geumcheon-gu is a hidden gem of a mountain: Hoamsan. It is a rocky peak at the end of a ridge running southwest from Gwanaksan, with Samseongsan rising right behind it. People who only know Gwanaksan have often never heard of it, but one climb tells you why it deserves the name.

Even the name has a story. Hoam (虎巖) means tiger rock: the mountain was said to look like a tiger glaring at Hanyang, the old capital. Legend has it that when King Taejo was building his palace, a tiger-shaped force kept wrecking the work, and an old man told him to build a temple on the tiger’s tail. That temple is Hoapsa (虎壓寺), literally the temple that pins the tiger down. Around the summit runs Hoamsan Fortress, used from the Three Kingdoms period through the Joseon era, and inside it you can still find Hanumul, a stone-lined pond 22 m long and 12 m wide, and a carved stone beast.

The rocks at the top are genuinely spectacular. Stand on the big granite boulders and the whole southwest of Seoul lies at your feet. Go up as the sun sets and the lights come on, and like Twin Peaks in San Francisco, you can see all of Seoul’s night view at once. Sitting on the rock with a roll of gimbap, looking down at those lights, is a feeling you won’t get anywhere else.

I came down by way of Hoapsa, where the stone pagoda and halls were lit up after dark. Then I finished the day with lamb skewers.