Our Backyard

Yesterday we decided to explore our backyard a bit more... Just behind the parking lot there is a trail leading back into the woods and mountains. We've done a little bit of hiking back there, but yesterday we went on a serious journey! There's some interesting stuff that you come across when hiking here. In the next picture you see these circular grass mounds... I am almost certain that they are "tumuli" - thanks to Ingrid for the real research!:) Or in other words old burial mounds. They are everywhere scattered throughout the woods along trails.


Here are some more cared for ones. I think that the family members of the deceased will hike out here and keep up the site. The whole family might come and visit to pay their respect to the ancestor on a holiday like Chusok.


You see a lot of these all throughout the woods and I'm not quite sure what they are yet... No idea... Anyone?


So after a little hike the small trail opens up into a much bigger one and for a little while it is actually somewhat paved.


And then there's some farms... Only accessible by foot. No cars! There's this whole little world back here in these woods that you can't drive to! You have to hike at least twenty minutes to get to them. There's houses and even a little church. (I'll have to get pictures of those some time.) It seems like it's mostly elderly people living back there. I wonder if they are mainly self sustaining or if they just regularly hike in and out...



Beautiful trail, cool rock!



Lots of little waterfalls and streams everywhere.


Before too long our big path petered out and we ventured off onto smaller trails... And at this point as we were hiking and taking in the awesome scenery we decided to make an adventure out of the day and see if we could hike to one of our favorite places: Black Goat Village. After this point our smaller trails completely vanished and we were doing a bit of bushwhacking or following deer trails. It was about an hour into our hike that we stumbled upon this property. Again... no roads around! I know it looks like a road in the picture - but it wasn't. And now looking at the picture it doesn't look like much of a property either but it was! It kinda looks like a pile of trash, but it was actually a little farm and compound of shack like structures.


As we began getting closer to Black Goat Village we stumbled upon THIS! I believed it's called the East Gate. It's part of a long chain of fortresses and temples that are along the Geumjeongsan Mountain Ridge. These create a really large loop of sites all connected by a wall.


Crossing another stream...



And we finally made it! To the place that looks like a castle and has the most delicious food in the world! this picture is actually the place across the street from the restaurant, but it looks really similar. Hahah... forgot to take a pic of the restaurant. The restaurant looks older though and has a lot of gold on it...


We were so happy!!!



This delicious and gorgeous side dish had azaleas in it!


This is actually a picture from the first time we went... It gives you a better idea of the whole spread.


And notice the flowers in the back, behind Ken in the last picure? These are real orchids! Aren't they beautiful?

And that's about it. It was a good day!