Mangsan 망산

• Wahyeon Fire Beacon 와현 봉수대

• Seoyimal Lighthouse 서이말등대

304.9 meters

0.48 km to the fire beacon

📍trailhead

So Ashleigh recommended a “leisurely walk up a mountain” this morning. Technically, that’s what this hike should have been, but (spoiler alert) didn’t end up that way. If you’re easily grossed out by blood, you may not want to scroll down. Just know that this is technically a very easy hike to see Wahyeon Fire Beacon and Seoyimal Lighthouse.

Nearing the trailhead, you’ll pass a lookout platform on the side of the road. This has a great view of Wahyeon Beach so I definitely recommend stopping here along the way.

At the turnoff you’ll come across a sentry post because there is army stuff down this way. You’ll probably get a salute, like we did, and permission to enter if you tell them you’re visiting the lighthouse. From here, you’ll be driving along a road for 1.7km until you reach the trail for the fire beacon.

The 0.48km hike to the fire beacon is the only actual “hiking” on this trail (however, there is the option to connect to Gonggoji if you want to extend your hike). Before you know it, you’ll emerge at the fire beacon and have some pretty great views!

Looking out at the sea, you can see Naedo, Oedo, and even Haegeumgang and Windy Hill in the distance. There is a laminated summit marker on the backside of the tree that you can see in the blog cover pic.

Next stop is the lighthouse, which in my opinion was just kind of meh, but if you’re here anyways, you might as well check it out. It’s a further 2.2km driving down the same road to reach the lighthouse on the point. You’ll see signage to be careful of wildlife as well as signs to beep your horn as some of the trucks that travel down this road go a bit fast and it’s a single lane.

After the lighthouse, Ashleigh and I decided to explore a path we saw about halfway between the lighthouse and the trail to the fire beacon. This is the path that connects to Gonggoji, but since we brought swimsuits, we were hoping to find a way to access a rocky beach that I could see on the satellite view of naver maps.

The trail started off fine enough, big enough for an ATV or an old truck. We saw a smaller trail turning off towards the left which we knew was the direction to the beach. So we followed this trail. Eventually, the trail kind of faded and we were more or less bush-whacking through the trees. We were so close to the water that we kept going though. Eventually, we emerged on some huge rock cliffs with a great view of some fishermen and the beach on our left.

We were loving the views from here and feeling pretty pleased with our choice to venture off the trail, but unfortunately we couldn’t access the beach because it looked too dangerous to climb down the rocks. So from here, we started to head back. Directly above us, we thought we saw what could have been part of the trail, so we decided to try to climb the rocky “wall”. It started off well, I was feeling quite pleased with my climbing skills, since I’m not very athletic, but unfortunately a giant rock came loose (probably due to so much rain earlier in the week) and hit me on the head and body.

I was immediately nauseous and just wanting to get to the hospital. The worst part was having to hike back to the car. We tried to go quickly but carefully. I was so lucky to have Ashleigh there keeping me calm (not my forte).

After making it back to the car we headed for Daewoo Hospital. I ended up with a concussion, a bulge between my 6th and 7th neck vertebrae, and lots of bruising and cuts. After four nights in the hospital, I finally got to return home. I’ll be taking a rest from hiking this week, but plan to get back at it next week…staying on the main trails.