Hwangtogil: Gyejoksan Red Clay Mountain Trail Barefoot
The Gyejoksan red soil mountain trail (hwangtogil) is a great day trip from Seoul (if you’re into walking!) It only took an hour for us to get to Daejeon on the KTX from Seoul. And from there, it was just a taxi ride before we were basking in the aromatic air of the mountain forest!
The Hwangtogil Red Soil Mountain Trail is on the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism’s list of 100 MUST-VISIT attractions in Korea!
The walk itself isn’t strenuous – it’s a gentle, undulating path – but walking the whole 14.5 km barefoot turned out to be a bit of a challenge!
WHAT IS HWANGTO? 황토
Hwangto actually means ‘yellow soil’ and it’s a type of red clay found all over Asia – Muan in Jeolla-do in the far south of Korea is well known for its rich red soil – it even has the red soil symbol in its county flag.
Hwangto is said to have many health benefits. It contains a lot of minerals including potassium, iron, and calcium. And it’s a natural purifier and antioxidant, disinfectant and detoxifier.
It emits infrared rays that are absorbed by the body to help blood circulation and cell regeneration. Korean saunas have hwangto rooms like this one at Dragon Hill Spa.
And hwangto is used in rituals to purify and prevent bad luck. (the colour RED is thought to repel ghosts).
WALKING BAREFOOT ON HWANGTOGIL
We were told it would take 5 hours to get around barefoot. It’s only 14.5 km all the way around (it’s a circuit), so I thought 5 hours sounded excessive. I mean, normally it wouldn’t take more than 3 hours, would it?
But it DID take us 5 hours to get all the way around. Most of the hikers were simply walking on the regular path next to the clay path with their shoes on. And they were striding past us!
And I realised that walking in bare feet IS NOT THE SAME AS WALKING WITH SHOES ON!
The 14.5 km path is a circuit, so at the start/finish there are foot baths and running water where walkers can get the red soil and crushed berry stains off their feet with scrubbing brushes!
The first 4 or 5 km of the walk are the busiest. Here the red soil is thick and well maintained. Groups of hikers sit at outdoor tables drinking makgeoli with light side dishes.
But then the number of walkers thins out dramatically. It’s peaceful for the rest of the trail and easier to walk since there’s just a thin layer of red soil. (But no toilets for a while).
The soil has so many textures. Sometimes it’s hard like a slab of clay ready to be moulded into a ceramic pot. In other places it’s soggy and wet and seriously slippy. And in other sections it’s deep and squelchy like a muddy beach.
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HOW THE HWANGTOGIL ROAD WAS MADE
According to a sign on the pathway, walking barefoot is good for improving circulation, digestion and memory. And it’s good for healing headaches, insomnia, and preventing diabetes.
All these health benefits are the reason why the red soil path was made in the first place.
A business was walking in the mountains and gave his shoes to a lady who was struggling to get up the mountain in her high heels (!) He finished the walk in bare feet and in pain. But that night he slept well and felt so good and revitalised. Wanting to share his experience he financed this red soil trail in 2006.
It’s free to walk along the path but it needs a lot of maintenance. While we were there a truck came along spraying water all along the path to moisten the soil. And several workers were raking the soil which had become flat with all the walkers from the day before. It costs 400 million KRW a year to maintain the pathway which is paid for by the CEO’s company!
We finished our walk with the traditional apres-hike cuisine – makgeolli and acorn jelly salad! The walk was an unusual experience – we’ve never walked that far in bare feet before. (And we had some muscle pain the next day!) I’d like to come again but try different trails next time as there are lots of walks, not just the red soil trail.
WHEN TO VISIT
Mt. Gyejoksan Barefoot Festival is held in May, but it’s possible to walk on the red soil path from spring to autumn. I think it would be difficult and slippy to walk the hwangtogil on a rainy day, but great on dry days and not bad in the summer too as the trees offer a lot of shade all the way around.
HOW TO GET THERE
It’s one hour on the KTX from Yongsan station in Seoul to Daejeon. We got a taxi to the mountain which cost about 15,000 won. But there are buses.
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This is quite interesting, we have plenty of clay rich volcanic soil in the Caribbean but, definitively, we don’t have this -wellness concept…might be good to try out, who knows what this can turn into! \ (•◡•) /
Yes, there are SO many kinds of health products using red soil here!