About Huibang Falls (huibang pokpo [희방폭포])
Huibang Falls (Huibang Pokpo [희방폭포]) was a waterfall nestled in a thick forest beneath the Huibangsa Temple below Yeonhwabong Peak in the Sobaeksan Mountain east of the town of Danyang.
It’s said to be 28m, which if true, would make it one of the largest waterfalls in the central inland region of Korea.
A sign here said that Seo geo-jeong, who was a reknown Confucian scholar of the Joseon Dynasty, described the falls as “…a place given by heaven, only to be seen in one’s dreams or in one’s imagination”.
That said, I swore that the waterfall looked quite a bit shorter than that in person, where it appeared more like 15m maybe, unless I’m missing some upper tiers that couldn’t be seen from the lookout.
Nevertheless, it seemed to me that the main draw here was probably the moderately-sized Huibangsa Temple, which sat further up the Yeonhwabong Peak from the waterfall.
The temple featured a series of bluish-tiled buildings with the familiar fancy tiled roofs that I’ve come to associate with old school Asian architecture.
Perhaps the temple’s presence shouldn’t be surprising because the mountains around Danyang were known to have many UNESCO World Heritage temples where the nearby Guinsa and Buseoksa Temples are among them.
As far as experiencing the Huibang Falls, we started from the uppermost public car park (see directions below), where a barricade stopped further access except for authorized vehicles.
A well-signed forest trail briefly went up along the road before veering to the right up forested steps on the way to the Yeonhwabong Peak (which the waterfall hike shares the trail with).
After about perhaps 600m from the car park, we proceeded to walk onto a bridge and then a lookout at the end of this bridge, which presented a frontal view of the Huibang Pokpo Falls, where there was a rest bench to also take in the view.
After having our fill of the Huibang Falls, I then decided to backtrack then veer to the left to continue up a stair-stepped trail leading up to the Huibangsa Temple.
Upon going up to the top of some steep steps, there was a bridge spanning the head of the gorge containing the Huibang Falls (where it can be heard but it was hard to see from up there) before continuing another 200m to the temple complex itself.
The trail actually rejoined the same road that we had deviated from, and so there were locals who drive up here to work the cafe, pray at the temples, or maintain the area.
When I visited this waterfall in the afternoon of our mid-June 2023 visit, a fairly crazy thunderstorm overtook Yeonhwabong Peak providing many flashes of lightning and forcing me to take shelter in the local cafe here.
Once the storm calmed down, I then checked out the temple complex, where there were steps leading to a lookout to take in a more elevated view of this temple complex.
It’s said that the Huibangsa Temple once housed an original wooden printing block, which was destroyed during the Korean War, but it has since been re-created though I don’t think that re-creation is here anymore.
After having my fill of the Huibangsa Temple, I then decided to walk back down the road to return to the car, which was about an 800m walk to avoid the muddiness and slippery terrain of the trail given the downpour that happened just minutes earlier.
Overall, I spent about a little over 90 minutes away from the car, but at least over a half-hour of that time was spent waiting out the thunderstorm.
Thus, this excursion could easily take about an hour to take in both the Huibangpokpo and the Huibangsa though it could also be done in as little as a half-hour if you don’t go up to the temple.
Authorities
Huibang Falls resides in Sobaeksan National Park near the town of Danyang in Yeongju-si county of the Gyeongsangbuk-do Province, South Korea. It may be administered by the Korean National Park Service as well as local authorities. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, you can try visiting this website.
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