Predawn hike up Seongsan Ilchulbong to see the sun rise from its peak! (Photo-essay)

The majority of visitors to Jeju spend a night (or more) at Seogwipo, over on the southern side of the island.  My party of four didn't do so and, instead, spent two of our three nights in Jeju over to the east in Seongsan, a small town with one very big tourist draw in the form of Seongsan Ilchulbong (aka Sunrise Peak), a tuff cone which rose out of the sea as a result of hydrovolcanic eruptions that occured some five thousand years ago.

On account of it being located on the far eastern edge of Jeju, Seongsan Ilchulbong has the earliest sunset on the island and it's become very much the thing to go see the sun rise from atop this UNESCO World Heritage-listed site's 182-meter-high peak.  So the day after we had an early dinner and a far earlier bed time than we usually do, one of my friends and I got up and went for a predawn hike up Seongsan Ilchubong that we were able to accomplish in far less time (some 20 minutes!) than I had anticipated, with plenty of time to find a prime viewing spot from which to view what turned out to be a truly stunning sunrise... :)

It was still pretty dark when we approached and 

began our ascent of Seongsan Ilchulbong

The path up was clear enough though

thanks to there being lights showing the way

I really was amazed by how far up we got in so short a time!

The horizon was orange-tinged but the moon was still visible 

and far up in the sky when we picked our sunrise viewing spots

 Here comes the sun, looking as though 

it's rising out of the grayish-blue sea!

That's the sun, not the moon! :O

The sun looked to me like it was causing 

portions of the horizon to melt!

A sunrise that truly was worth the effort to see -- and this 

from someone who is far more of a night owl than early bird! :b