We traveled north of Gangnueng to the Northwest City of Sokcho on our way to Mt Soraksan. It was a glorious fall morning and one could almost forget that we were actually north of the 38th parallel in one of the few South Korean locations that actually extend north of it. We had an "American" style breakfast at a beautiful hotel on a bluff over-looking the Pacific. It was a thoughtful touch by our Korean Mission President and his wife. Then we walked out on the point of the bluff into a famous buddist temple area. The top photo is a view out over the Pacific from the temple grounds. The 2nd shows Linda standing near some of the hundreds of lanterns decorating the area and the third is a shot of a huge statue on the heights above the bluff.

The video shows the entrance to the temple grounds and you can hear the monks chanting and other temple sounds. We were dressed caually because we knew we would be hiking a lot this day so President Cho (seen leading us in this clip) has on his BB cap and hiking gear as well.