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Ulsan

Sinbulsan

9 km round tripStrenuous

Sinbulsan has two faces and they are not on speaking terms. On top there is a plateau of silver grass that draws people from the whole country in November. On the eastern flank there is the Sinbul Dinosaur Ridge, which Ulsan calls the roughest rock ridge in the Yeongnam Alps and which has ropes fixed across it. Two of the three official routes go up the second one to reach the first.

Safety

Entry is free — Ulju county states it plainly for both individuals and groups, and the Hongnyu falls as well. No booking is needed and no entry time limit is published. What does restrict you is the fire season: Ulju closes 2,573 hectares here from 1 November to 15 May and keeps only three named routes open, with a 200,000 won penalty for entering elsewhere and a requirement to register your walk.

산불조심기간 입산통제 고시 제2025-286호

The Forest Service advises against using the Dinosaur Ridge as a descent route: there are many places where ropes are fixed across the rock faces, and in November, when crowds come for the silver grass, the congestion at those points becomes severe. Its suggested alternative is to continue to Ganwolkae and drop down the Hongnyu falls valley instead. This is the only avoidance advice published by an official source for this mountain.

신불산 — 산림청 100대 명산

Ulsan describes the Sinbul Dinosaur Ridge as the roughest rock ridge in the Yeongnam Alps, and the Forest Service calls it a long line of rock peaks. Two of the three routes here go up it.

신불산 — 울산광역시 관광

From 1 November to 15 May, Ulju closes 2,573 hectares covering Sinbulsan and Ganwolsan and keeps only three named routes open. Entering the closed area carries a penalty of 200,000 won, and walkers on the open routes are required to register. Carrying fire-making equipment onto any woodland in the county is separately prohibited over the same period.

산불조심기간 입산통제 고시 제2025-286호

No entry time limit is published for Sinbulsan, unlike the national parks. The longest route is 4 hours 10 minutes round trip, and in winter the plateau is exposed.

산불조심기간 입산통제 고시 제2025-286호

Routes

3 routes · 3 reach the summit
Gacheon Village to the SummitPrimary
Reaches summit
Moderate
Round trip
9 km
Time
4 h 10 m

Gacheon village past the Geonmin ranch to Sinbuljae and the summit: 9.0 km round trip in 4 hours 10 minutes, the figures Ulsan gives as a return journey.

The longest of the three and the easiest. At 2.2 km an hour it moves at a normal walking pace, because it climbs by the saddle rather than the rock. It is also the route that puts you onto the silver grass plateau rather than under it.

Ulju’s fire-season notice keeps a Gacheon-ri route open when most of the mountain is shut, which makes this the one to know about between November and May.

Amethyst Cavern Car Park by the Dinosaur Ridge
Reaches summit
Strenuous
Round trip
8 km
Time
4 h 40 m

Amethyst cavern car park up the Sinbul Dinosaur Ridge to the summit: 8.0 km round trip in 4 hours 40 minutes.

A kilometre shorter than the Gacheon route and half an hour longer, which is the ridge showing up in the numbers. Ulsan calls this the roughest rock ridge in the Yeongnam Alps.

Note that this trailhead is not among the three routes Ulju keeps open during the fire season.

Ganwol Sanjang by the Hongnyu Falls
Reaches summit
Strenuous
Round trip
5.4 km
Time
3 h 40 m

Ganwol Sanjang past the Hongnyu falls and up the Dinosaur Ridge to the summit: 5.4 km round trip in 3 hours 40 minutes.

The shortest route on the mountain and the slowest pace on it — under 1.5 km an hour for the round trip. Short and steep, with the falls as the consolation on the way in.

This is one of the three routes Ulju keeps open in the fire season, which is worth knowing given what the other open route costs in distance.

Getting there

Sinbulsan stands in the Yeongnam Alps, on the boundary between Sangbuk-myeon and Samnam-eup in Ulju, Ulsan. It is a county park in its own right, designated in 1983 — not part of the Gajisan provincial park next door, despite the two mountains being neighbours. Three official routes climb it, from Gacheon village, from Ganwol Sanjang by the Hongnyu falls, and from the amethyst cavern car park. Local buses 343, 353 and 413 serve the area from Eonyang and Samnam.

Gacheon Village (Samnam-eup)
Bus 343 runs from Samnam to the Yeongnam Alps welcome centre roughly every 74 minutes, 06:30 to 21:00. Ulju publishes the timetable but not the stop-to-trailhead mapping, so confirm the last leg locally.
Bus OK
Ganwol Sanjang (Sangbuk-myeon)
The Hongnyu falls sit on this route and are free to visit. No parking charge is published.
Amethyst Cavern Car Park
The eastern trailhead for the Dinosaur Ridge. No parking charge is published.
Source: 신불산 — 울산광역시 관광

Course overview

Route overview · reference only
Primary route
Gacheon Village to the Summit
9 km4 h 10 m
Routes on this mountain
  • Gacheon Village to the SummitPrimary
  • Amethyst Cavern Car Park by the Dinosaur Ridge
  • Ganwol Sanjang by the Hongnyu Falls

Course overview · reference only — a schematic of the routes, not an actual navigation route or GPS track.

Not part of the park next door

A point of order before anything else, because it changes which rules apply. Sinbulsan is a county park, designated by Ulju in 1983. It is not part of Gajisan Provincial Park, whose three districts are Tongdosa, Naewonsa and Seoknamsa. There is no Sinbulsan district.

The two mountains are neighbours in the same range and get lumped together constantly. They have different legal status, different managing arrangements and, as it turns out, different closure notices with different dates. If you are planning both, plan them separately.

Three routes, and the numbers tell you which is which

Ulsan publishes three routes, all as round-trip distances with round-trip times, which is cleaner than most of what we work with.

Gacheon village is 9.0 km in 4 hours 10 — the longest and, at 2.2 km an hour, by some way the fastest pace. It climbs by the Sinbuljae saddle. The amethyst cavern route is 8.0 km in 4 hours 40: a kilometre shorter and half an hour longer. Ganwol Sanjang is 5.4 km in 3 hours 40, which works out at under 1.5 km an hour.

The two slow ones are the two that use the Dinosaur Ridge. That is the whole pattern of this mountain in three lines.

Go up the ridge, not down it

This is the one piece of genuine avoidance advice an official source gives for this mountain, and it is worth quoting closely.

The Forest Service writes that in November, when people pour in from all over the country for the Sinbul plateau, you should avoid taking the Dinosaur Ridge as your descent — there are many places where ropes are fixed across the rock faces, and the congestion at those points becomes severe. Its recommendation is to carry on to Ganwolkae and come down the Hongnyu falls valley instead.

Read that as a crowd warning as much as a terrain one. A rope section that works fine when you have it to yourself becomes a queue on a rock face when two hundred people want it in both directions.

If you are here in autumn, go up one way and down the other.

Six and a half months closed

Ulju notice 2025-286 shuts 2,573 hectares across 342 parcels at Gacheon-ri, covering Sinbulsan and Ganwolsan, from 1 November 2025 to 15 May 2026.

Three routes stay open through it: Gacheon-ri by the main valley to the summit and Ganwolkae; Ganwol Sanjang by the Hongnyu falls to the summit; and the Baenae pass line over Baenaebong, Ganwolsan and Ganwolkae. The amethyst cavern approach is not on that list.

This has teeth. Entering the closed area carries a penalty of 200,000 won, and the county requires walkers on the open routes to register. A separate notice bans carrying fire-making equipment onto any woodland in Ulju over the same period — 51,856 hectares of it.

Six and a half months is the longest closure of any mountain in this guide. It leaves mid-May to the end of October, which does at least include the silver grass season.

It is free, and the county says so

Ulju lists Sinbulsan county park as free for individuals and free for groups, and the Hongnyu falls the same. That is the county’s own wording rather than us inferring it from a missing price list, which is a distinction worth making on a site where several mountains have unconfirmed charges.

Parking is the gap: no rate is published for any of the three trailheads. That means no rate is published, not that parking is free.

One warning about the county database. Its record for Sinbulsan county park carries a height of 1,241 m — the identical string used in its Gajisan entry. The real figure is 1,159 m, given by Ulsan city and corroborated by the Forest Service at 1,159.3 m. Do not use the county tourism database for this mountain’s height.

Getting there

Ulju publishes bus timetables for the area: 343 from Samnam to the Yeongnam Alps welcome centre every 74 minutes or so, 06:30 to 21:00; 353 from Eonyang to Baengnyeon village in the Baenae valley every two hours; 413 from Yulli depot to Seoknamsa every 38 minutes.

What the county does not publish is which stop serves which trailhead. We are giving the routes because they are official, and telling you to confirm the last leg locally because that part is not.

The welcome centre itself is open Tuesday to Sunday, 09:00 to 22:00, and closed Mondays.

How to take it

For the plateau and nothing harder, walk from Gacheon village: 9.0 km round trip, 4 hours 10, a proper walking pace the whole way, and open even in the closed season.

For the ridge, start at Ganwol Sanjang — 5.4 km, 3 hours 40, the falls on the way in and the rock above them. It is also one of the three routes that stays open in winter, which the amethyst cavern approach is not.

And whichever way you go up in November, do not come down the Dinosaur Ridge. The Forest Service has said so, and the reason is people rather than rock.

FAQ

Which route should I take?

Gacheon village, if you want the plateau without the rock: 9.0 km round trip in 4 hours 10, at a normal walking pace. Ganwol Sanjang is the shortest at 5.4 km but goes up the Dinosaur Ridge and takes 3 hours 40. The amethyst cavern route is 8.0 km and 4 hours 40, also by the ridge.

What is the Dinosaur Ridge like?

Ulsan calls it the roughest rock ridge in the Yeongnam Alps. The Forest Service notes that ropes are fixed across many of the rock faces and advises against coming down it — particularly in November, when the silver grass crowds make those rope sections badly congested. Go up it if you want it; come down the Hongnyu falls valley.

When is it closed?

From 1 November to 15 May, which is six and a half months. Ulju closes 2,573 hectares and keeps three routes open: Gacheon-ri, Ganwol Sanjang by the Hongnyu falls, and the Baenae pass line. The amethyst cavern route is not on that list. Entering elsewhere costs 200,000 won and the open routes require registration.

When is the silver grass at its best?

Autumn, and the Forest Service says November brings visitors from all over the country to the Sinbul plateau. That is also when the ridge gets congested, so if you are going then, plan the ascent and descent as different routes.

Is this part of Gajisan Provincial Park?

No. Sinbulsan is a county park designated by Ulju in 1983. Gajisan Provincial Park has three districts — Tongdosa, Naewonsa and Seoknamsa — and none of them is Sinbulsan. They are neighbouring mountains in the same range with different legal status and different closure notices.

Is there a fee?

No. Ulju lists the county park as free for individuals and groups alike, and the Hongnyu falls too. No parking charge is published at any of the three trailheads, which means no rate is published rather than that parking is free.

Sources & last reviewed · 5 sources

Last reviewed 2026-09-21