Deogyusan

Deogyusan National Park was declared on 1 February 1975 as the tenth national park in South Korea, across the provinces of North Jeolla and South Gyeongsang, in the Sobaek range. Its main summit is Hyangjeokbong, at 1,614 metres, one of the highest in peninsular Korea outside the eastern range.

The park's axis is the Gucheondong valley, a canyon some twenty-five kilometres long threaded by a river of clear water and punctuated by a series of numbered spots — the thirty-three scenes of Gucheondong — that include waterfalls, pools, singular rocks and hermitages. It is one of the most celebrated valleys in Korea and concentrates most of the visits to the park.

The vegetation is temperate deciduous forest at middle altitudes, with oak, maple and lime, and conifers and subalpine scrub on the summits, where rime ice and ice-coated trees form in winter. That abundant snow explains the presence of the Muju ski resort, on the edge of the park, the largest in the interior of the country, whose coexistence with the protection has been a source of conflict. The wildlife includes forest mammals such as the yellow-throated marten and the Korean flying squirrel, as well as mountain amphibians in the valley streams.