Months prior to my flight to Daejeon, South Korea, I had looked up some places that I definitely wanted to visit during my stay. One of them was the Gyejoksan Mountain Red Clay Trail.
From CNU, my friends and I took a taxi and got dropped off by a trail and we made our way up the mountains. Initially, I thought the walk was going to be quick and that the red clay trail would be seen right away! However, after a while of steep roads, we were not so sure where we were going. So one of my Korean speaking friend asked the seasoned hikers where the red clay road was. One of the couples were kind enough to walk us nearly half way to the red clay trail!
These hikers were mostly older couples dressed in hiking gear including hiking boots, long sleeves, visor, and hiking sticks! I felt so underdressed with my sandals and my tiny backpack. Anyways, after a cute old couple showed us where to go, we continued our hike. Along the way, there were art sculptures scattered throughout.
At first glance, it just looks like a stack of rocks. These stacks of rocks are suppose to be a family. With the two tallest being the parents and the shorter ones being the children. If you look closely, the wiring takes on the shape of the face and body.
There were also these beautiful gold painted hands right next to two hearts where people would be able to put locks on it. These art pieces scattered made the trail very fun to go on. Soon after these beautiful pieces of art, we found hula hoops!
I was able to get my fitness on with these gigantic hula-hoops. There were hula-hoops of various sizes, but this one took the cake. For reference, I am around 5ft 4in tall (162.6cm). While doing these, I definitely felt pain on abs. Not sure if it was from exercising or just the sheer size of that thing.
The views on the hiking trail were beautiful and the air was nice and crisp. Most of the time when I was walking, I’d be looking at the ground to avoid stepping on twigs and bugs. But when I lifted my head, the view was always incredible.
Towards the end of the trail, washing stations were available for us to wash our feet! These scrubby thingies were provided by hikers so everyone could really scrub their feet. However, I opted to use my hands because those hurt haha.
To top off the barefoot hike after washing our feet, there were acupuncture rocks where we could step on to really get our blood flowing. This does not look like much, but it hurts quite a bit. But after I finished torturing myself a bit, I felt really good.
So far, this has been one of the coolest natural places I have been to. The combination of hiking barefoot in mud and different methods of exercising throughout the trail with such great views made this hiking experience truly one of a kind.
If you want to learn more about the Red Clay Road, here is a link: http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/ATR/SI_EN_3_1_1_1.jsp?cid=1731981
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