Six autumn landscapes calling: ancient ginkgos, crimson maples and silver reed seas

Silver grasslands rippling over a reclaimed landfill

A yellow carpet blanketing frost-covered fields

Reed-lined ridges wrapping a doline crater

Sobaeksan panoramas beyond a 500-meter golden dirt path

The red Uhwajeong pavilion mirrored in a clear pond

Reeds and a sunset parting 5.28 million square meters of tidal flat

Suncheonman Wetland [Korea Tourism Organization]

A cool breeze has begun to drift in morning and evening, and the landscape is quietly changing its face. Mountains and fields are shedding their summer green and drawing a slow breath of gold, crimson and silver-white. Autumn travel is a journey that follows the grain of the season — a search for the complete rest that nature offers. At this turning point between seasons, we look at six destinations where thousand-year-old trees cast their shade, reed waves roll across hillsides, quiet temple paths wind through fallen leaves, baby maple leaves blaze red, and reed beds spread across tidal flats.

Silver grasslands over a reclaimed landfill

Haneul Park, Seoul [Korea Tourism Organization]

Haneul Park in Sangam-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul, is a 190,000-square-meter ecological park built on the restored site of Nanjido, a former landfill. Sitting on a gently graded plateau 98 meters above sea level, it features sweeping reed fields, open grasslands, wind turbines and observation decks, making it the most accessible autumn destination in the greater Seoul area.

The reeds begin to send up their flower stalks in mid-October, shimmering silver in the crisp autumn sun before warming to a golden hue as they absorb the red glow of the western sky at dusk. Each time the wind sweeps across the ridge, the vast grassland bends in waves like an ocean. From the north and south observation decks, visitors look out over a panorama of the Han River curving below, a forest of downtown skyscrapers, and the distant ridgeline of Bukhansan stretching like a folding screen. Night lighting is switched on around the time of the annual Seoul Silver Grass Festival in mid-October; after the festival ends, from late October through early November, the crowds thin and the park becomes a more leisurely place to walk. Visitors who find the uphill walk difficult can take an eco-friendly electric vehicle that runs from the park entrance to the summit.

A thousand-year canopy and layers of golden fallen leaves

Bangye-ri ginkgo tree, Wonju [Korea Tourism Organization]

The Bangye-ri ginkgo tree, standing in the fields of Munmak-eup, Wonju, Gangwon Province, has drawn a fervent response on social media. It is Natural Monument No. 167, estimated to be between 800 and 1,000 years old — a massive solitary tree 32 meters tall, with a trunk circumference of 16.27 meters at chest height and a base circumference of 14.5 meters.

Its branches spread evenly in all directions — 31 meters east to west and 28.7 meters north to south — forming an enormous golden dome-shaped canopy. With no obstructions blocking the view in any direction, the ancient tree stands alone in the middle of open fields, bathed in full autumn sunlight and creating an almost surreal sense of space. The leaves typically turn a vivid yellow around late October. When frost falls, the leaves drop all at once, blanketing the ground within a 15-meter radius in a thick golden carpet deep enough to sink your feet into. The tree is about a 10-minute drive from the nearby Munmak interchange on the Yeongdong Expressway, but early-morning visits are recommended on peak-season weekends, when the access farm road and temporary parking area become bottlenecked.

Reed waves shaped by highland ridges and doline terrain

Dolines on Mindungsan, Jeongseon-gun [Korea Tourism Organization]

Mindungsan, a 1,119-meter peak in Nam-myeon, Jeongseon-gun, Gangwon Province, is one of South Korea's premier autumn reed-hiking destinations, with a gently sloping reed colony covering about 660,000 square meters around its summit. After slash-and-burn farming for mountain vegetable harvests stripped the area of its tall trees, reeds took root in their place and came to define the mountain's autumn character.

Dolines — shallow, dish-shaped depressions formed by the erosion of the limestone bedrock — sit around the summit like gentle craters, their undulating slopes densely packed with swaying reeds. At midday the reeds form a dazzling silver-white sea; as the afternoon fades and the setting sun cuts across the ridge, the entire hillside ignites in reddish-brown and gold, conjuring the vast, solemn atmosphere unique to highland terrain. Peak season runs from mid-October through early November.

A 500-meter golden dirt path and a Sobaeksan panorama

Buseoksa Temple, Yeongju [Korea Tourism Organization]

Buseoksa Temple, nestled on the slopes of Bonghwangsan in Yeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, was founded in 676 by the Buddhist monk Uisang during the reign of King Munmu of Silla. Its venerable historic structures — including the National Treasure Muryangsujeon hall and Josadang — harmonize beautifully with a temple layout that makes full use of the mountain's natural topography.

The roughly 500-meter approach road from the Iljumun gate to the Cheonwangmun gate is an unpaved, soft dirt path lined on both sides by old ginkgo trees that shed their leaves to lay a quiet yellow carpet along the entire route. Passing through the Cheonwangmun gate and climbing the successive steep stone terraces to Anyangnu pavilion in front of Muryangsujeon, visitors are greeted by an unobstructed view of the Sobaek mountain ranges rolling in layers of autumn color, with not a single man-made wall to interrupt the scene. Where the restrained lines of the ancient architecture meet the distant mountain foliage, a deep stillness unique to mountain temples settles in. The ginkgo leaves along the approach road turn yellow around late October, and together with the surrounding deciduous forest, the late-autumn atmosphere lingers through early November.

A crimson baby-maple tunnel spreading across Uhwajeong Pond

Naejangsan National Park [Korea Tourism Organization]

Naejangsan National Park, straddling Jeongeup in North Jeolla Province and Jangseong-gun in South Jeolla Province, produces autumn foliage of exceptional depth and clarity, thanks to wide daily temperature swings and abundant sunlight. Among native maple varieties, the park is home to a unique endemic species known as the "baby maple" — its leaves are roughly one-third the size of an adult's palm, divided into nine to eleven lobes, and fill the forest in a vivid crimson.

Uhwajeong pavilion, situated along the path leading to Naejangsa Temple, is the iconic photo spot of Naejangsan in autumn. The scene is striking: a pavilion with eaves spread like outstretched wings stands in the middle of a clear pond, surrounded by red maples whose reflection shimmers mirror-like on the still water. At dawn, when morning mist rises from the surface, the surrounding rocky outcrops and maple forest blend together into a scene resembling a classical landscape painting.

Along the Jeongeup-side approach to Naejangsa Temple, more than 300 maple trees from the Iljumun gate to Geumseon Bridge form a complete tunnel of red overhead. Because of the southern mountain climate, the foliage turns later here than in the central inland regions — a reddish tinge begins to appear from late October, with the spectacular peak typically arriving in early November.

Vast tidal reed beds and an S-curve waterway at sunset

Suncheonman Wetland, along the coast of Suncheon Bay in South Jeolla Province, is a coastal wetland protection zone comprising a reed colony and salt marsh covering about 5.28 million square meters. Located at the brackish estuary where the Dongcheon and Isacheon rivers converge and flow into the Suncheon Bay tidal flat, it supports a seemingly endless forest of reeds standing 2 to 3 meters tall.

Walking the wooden deck path laid through the reed beds, visitors hear the rustle of reed heads brushing against each other with every gust of sea breeze — the sound of the season itself. At the end of the deck path, a gentle forest trail (about 20 minutes one way) leads up to Yongsan Observatory, where a single sweeping view takes in the S-shaped tidal channel revealed at low tide, clusters of reeds gathered in rounded stands, and a red sunset gilding the mudflat in gold. From late October through mid-November, as the reed heads ripen to silver and brown, natural monument species including hooded cranes, black-faced spoonbills and white-naped cranes — having crossed from Siberia — descend in flocks to perform their aerial dances.

terry@heraldcorp.com