About Suok Falls (suok pokpo [수옥폭포])
Suok Falls (Suok Pokpo [수옥폭포]) was an attractive waterfall that we found to be quite easy to visit (at least if you find the proper car park, which I’ll explain later).
The waterfall is said to be 20m tall over three tiers (a hard-to-see upper one, a middle one that drops onto a shelf, and a lower one below the shelf) originating from Joryeongsan Forest within the Baekdudaegan Mountains.
Although we didn’t see anyone swimming at this waterfall (maybe the plunge pool is too shallow at the time?), we did see people dipping their feet in the stream making for a nice spot to cool off, especially in the Summer.
According to my GPS trip logs, it was about 800m from the car park (see directions below) to the Suokpokpo Waterfall going on either side of its stream.
The left side of the stream brought us to the fringes of the plunge pool as well as the octagonal Suokjeong Pavilion (said to have been built in 1711 though it was restored in 1960).
The right side of the stream brought us right to the base of the main drops of the waterfall right beneath a shelf with a low and wide alcove hinting that there were two layers of rock formations giving rise to Suok Falls’ height.
Even though we could get close to the waterfall on this side, we had to be real careful about the slippery surface, especially where it was wet.
Something that a worker at one of the cafes here told us was that this waterfall featured in quite a few K-dramas.
He didn’t say exactly which one, but a quick search turned up Damo (about a female detective in the Joseon Dynasty) and Alchemy of Souls (one of the more recent K-dramas as of our late June 2023 trip).
I haven’t watched either show to be honest so I can’t go into them much, but with the TV exposure as well as some movies come the increased notoriety, and thus I can see this place getting real busy (especially given the size of the main car park).
Speaking of the car park, our waypoint that we put into Kakao Map was right at the waterfall, but it incorrectly took us up a road past the main car park and up a narrower climbing road towards a water park.
Nevertheless, it was here that we could see that the stream responsible for Suok Falls was regulated (given the presence of a dam), and that there’s no direct trail descending from here to the base of the falls.
You still have to go along the stream on the sanctioned trail (as described earlier in this write-up) to get there.
Overall, we spent about 45 minutes encompassing the walk and the time spent taking in the Suok Falls before chilling out at one of the cafes on our way out.
Authorities
Suok Falls resides south of the city of Chungju in Goesan-gun County, Chungcheonbuk-do Province, South Korea. It may be administered by the local authorities of Goesan. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, you can try visiting this website, which lists a phone number for further inquiry.
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