On Walkabout At: Gosu Cave, South Korea

Here is another Korean cave I figured I would share with everyone since I am on a cave kick currently.  Gosu Cave (????) is located just outside of the small tourist city of Danyang (??) at the end of Chungcheongbuk-do’s Chungju Lake.  This cave is one of the most visited caves in all of Korea, .  If you are wondering Gosu Cave (Gosudonggul in Korean) is named after the tall thickets of grass that grow in the area.  The cave is within walking distance of Danyang and my wife and I found it a great place to escape the summer time heat in Korea because the cave stays at about a cool 15 degree Celsius temperature all year long.  Reaching the cave from Danyang was simple because all we had to do was walk across a bridge and into the beautiful valley that is home to the cave.  All the tourist shops and restaurants surrounding the cave let my wife and I know that we were in the right area:

When I visited the cave the crowds were of typical size for such a tourism site in Korea.  Having spent so many years in Korea it was still easy to enjoy the cave despite the amount of people confined in such a small place along the caves trail of bridges.  It is estimated that this limestone cave started to form 450 million years ago and 1,300 meters long and features a variety of scenic stalactites and stalagmites throughout the cave:

Some of them can be quite large and impressive:

As you can imagine taking pictures within the cave is challenging due to the lighting conditions as well as the swarm of visitors on the trail trying to push by you while trying to take a picture.  So most of my shots didn’t come out to well, but I was able to get a few shots that show some of the unusual features of this cave:

I did get a little wet when visiting Gosu Cave because of all the water dripping from the ceiling, but like I said before when visiting during the summer time this cool dripping water is a welcome relief from the scorching heat outside:

The trail through the cave is only 1.7 kilometers, but considering the confined space and the number of stairs you have to climb the trail actually feels longer than that.  It took us about an hour to go through the cave by keeping a leisurely pace and enjoying all the natural sites within the cave:

Gosu Cave is open all year round and definitely a must see attraction if you are visiting the Danyang area.  For people really into exploring caves and looking for the best cave in Korea to check out while visiting, Gosu Cave is not it.  Hwanseon Cave in Gangwon-do which I have posted about earlier on the site continues to be the best cave I have visited in Korea though Gosu Cave is a nice substitute for those who can’t make it that far out to Gangwon-do to see the cave.