Sambuyeon Falls (sambuyeon pokpo [삼부연폭포])

Galmal-eup / Mt Myeongseong / Hantangang River Geopark, Gangwon-do, South Korea

About Sambuyeon Falls (sambuyeon pokpo [삼부연폭포])

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Waterfall Safety and Common Sense

Sambuyeon Falls (Sambuyeon Pokpo [삼부연폭포]) was a 20m high waterfall dropping in three tiers between a steep granite notch though its main tier comprises most of the overall drop.

Personally, this waterfall introduced me to what it was like waterfalling in South Korea since it was my first one during our June 2023 trip to the country.

Sambuyeon_019_06112023 - Sambuyeon Falls
Sambuyeon Falls

Situated in the Hantangang River Geopark on the slopes of Mt Myeongseong north of Seoul, it took me over 2 hours to drive to this waterfall.

Of course, if you didn’t miss some turns, take wrong toll lanes, and have trouble deciphering Hangeul in real-timeand (not to mention lots of speed bumps as well as speed cameras), then you might get here way faster than I did (details in the directions).

Nevertheless, once you’re here, visiting the falls was quite easy once you get to the waterfall’s car park.

I wound up walking a well-developed path through a nice cool tunnel paralleling the roadside tunnel with rest benches and lights so no torch is needed.

Sambuyeon_011_06112023 - The tunnel providing some coolness to the area while also making the walk to the falls very easy
The tunnel providing some coolness to the area while also making the walk to the falls very easy

Upon emerging from the tunnel, I then followed a single-switchback ramp that leads straight to a lookout providing the frontal views of the Sambuyeon Waterfall that you see on this page.

My visit here was quite short because the steps leading down to the plunge pool was closed during my June 2023 visit, and the morning sun was shining directly against my line of sight.

I also didn’t realize that there was a temple across the road from the Sambuyeon Falls lookout so I can’t really say much more about what that would have been like (nor how much more time I could have spent checking that out).

In the end, my GPS logs said that it was about a 200m round-trip walk to cover the distance from the car park to the lookout and back, which underscores just how easy of a visit this was (provided you have your own rental car).

Sambuyeon_015_06112023 - Context of the lookout and the Sambuyeon Falls against the morning sun
Context of the lookout and the Sambuyeon Falls against the morning sun

Overall, I spent about 45 minutes away from the car though I easily could have left sooner than that or linger even longer had I checked out the temple despite the trail closure to the waterfall’s plunge pool.

Authorities

Sambuyeon Falls resides near Galmal-eup township in Cheorwon-gun county of the Gangwon-do Province, South Korea. It is administered by the Hantangang River Geopark 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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Tagged with: sambuyeon waterfall, cheolwon, cheorwon, cheolwon-gun, cheorwon-gun, gangwon, gangwon-do, korea, south korea, waterfall



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About Johnny Cheng

Johnny Cheng is the founder of the World of Waterfalls and author of the award-winning A Guide to New Zealand Waterfalls. Over the last 2 decades, he has visited thousands of waterfalls in over 40 countries around the world and nearly 40 states in the USA.
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