Everyone photographs the Gwangan Bridge from Gwangalli Beach. The better view — the one nobody tells you about — is from the cliffs across the water on the Igidae coastal trail, and it is best in the rain.
The Trail
Igidae is the forested peninsula between Gwangalli and the open sea, and the coastal walk runs its length — about 4.7 km of boardwalks, stairs, and two suspension bridges pinned to the cliff face above the water. I went on a grey Tuesday in jangma, the summer monsoon, when the rain comes in warm sheets and the tourists stay in their hotels.
I had the trail essentially to myself. The suspension bridges — normally queued with photo-takers — swayed empty over the rocks. The sea was the color of wet slate, and the Gwangan Bridge kept appearing and dissolving in the mist across the bay, its towers visible one minute and gone the next.
The Oryukdo End
I started at the southern end, at Oryukdo — the five-island viewpoint where a glass skywalk juts over the waves. In the rain the islands were just darker shapes in the grey, and the skywalk was closed for the weather, but the rocks below were doing the real show: the swell coming in long and breaking white against the black volcanic stone.
The trail north from there climbs and drops through pine forest, opening every few hundred meters onto another cliff view. The rain made it better — the pines were dripping, the boardwalks were empty, and the smell was all salt and wet resin. I passed maybe six people in two hours.
The Payoff
The trail ends above Gwangalli, and I came down out of the trees into the neighborhood behind the beach, soaked through and starving. A back-alley kimchi-jjigae place — the kind with four tables and a rice cooker in the corner — fixed both for 8,000 won.
The guidebooks send you to Igidae on a clear day for the view. Go in the rain instead. The view is moodier, the trail is yours, and the stew at the end tastes like you earned it.