Places in South Korea: Hwanseon Cave – Part 2

After completing our long walk in a driving rain storm to reach the entrance of Hwanseon Cave in South Korea, my wife and I entered the cave relieved that we were finally out of the rain.  At the cave’s entrance there was a large map depicting the interior of this cave:

Hwanseon Cave is advertised as being the largest cave in Korea and one of the largest in all of Asia.  Judging from the entrance this cave did appear to be quite big:

Supposedly this cave was long inhabited by a hermit who was a Buddhist monk.  Only the most devoted of Buddhist followers would make pilgrimages to see the hermit due to the extremely remote location of the cave.  One day the hermit just disappeared and the cave fell into obscurity until the local government in recent years opened it back up to tourism.

The initial path opens into a large chamber, but it appeared initially to be the only chamber in the cave:

I would find out later I was quite wrong because this cave had many other chambers to explore.  The first chamber had many large stalactites and stalagmites in the first chamber that formed from the water leaking through the limestone rock:

Hwanseon Cave also had many waterfalls in it flowing into the central creek that flows through the middle of the cave:

From the main chamber the trail composed of well constructed walkways, maneuvered up a narrow corridor with a rapidly flowing creek below it:

The corridor widened a bit further down the trail as the walkways hung off the side of the cave’s walls above the creek:

The trail eventually opened into another corridor decorated with neon lights along the handrails of the walkways:

As this picture shows, these walkways are actually very well constructed and I was reading on one of the signs in the cave that these walkways are relatively new and before their installation visitors had to walk on the surface of the cave often times in water:

Along the walls of the cave often time a phenomenon known as “cave coral” could be spotted from the cave’s limestone walls reacting to the heavy moisture from within the cave:

Besides the two large main chambers in the cave, there was also a number of side paths that could be followed to explore other areas in the cave:

One of the most popular sights in the cave is this hollowed out rock formation shaped like a heart:

A number of Korean couples could be seen lining up to have their pictures taken in front of this unusual rock formation.  As the trail continued passed the heart shaped rock formation there was actually a section of the walkway that was a rope suspension bridge over an extremely deep chasm:

The chasm was so deep I couldn’t even see the bottom of it.  After the bridge, the trail came back to the neon lighted second main chamber:

Something interesting to see in this main chamber was the beginning of the formation of a stalagmite on the floor of the cave:

Later down one of the side chambers from the second main chamber we came upon an unusual rock formation that looks like the Virgin Mary:

From the second main chamber the trail then goes through the narrow passage once again connecting the two chambers:

As we continued back towards the entrance of the cave we came upon what was easily the largest of the many waterfalls in the cave:

Eventually the narrow passage opened up back into the first main chamber of the cave:

From the first main chamber there is a side trail that we took that went around an unusual rock formation known as the Walls of China:

From the Walls of China the walkway then returns down the passage towards the opening of the cave:

Near the opening of the cave there is an area where visitors can taste the water flowing through the cave.  Some people I know think I am nuts drinking water from the streams in Korea, but not once have I become sick from doing so.  My wife and I both tried out the water and we could definitely taste the minerals in the water, but it was actually quite good.  We ended up drinking quite a bit of the water because the entire walk through the cave took about an hour and a half and we were thirsty by the end of the walk.

The cave was actually a lot bigger then we thought it was going to be and we were both quite impressed.  I have hiked through various caves in Korea but Hwanseon Cave is as advertised the largest.  For those that have been to Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico, it is no where near as big as that cave, but it is still quite impressive considering how unexpectedly big this cave was.  A feature of this cave that is definitely more impressive than Carlsbad Caverns is all the flowing water and cascading waterfalls.  Only in New Zealand have I been in a cave with this much water.

Additionally the walk up through the valley is also quite scenic and my wife and I definitely want to come back to the valley just hike up to the top of it some day when it is not raining.  So all in all we had an extremely great time visiting the cave and in my opinion this is one of the top natural attractions in Korea.