I’m off work this week and decided to spend time in town rather than travel to more distant places. Saving some cash isn’t a bad idea either. So, I drove out west of town to the Paraeso Waterfalls in one of the national parks. The park is in the Yongnam Alps, a mountain range than runs parallel to the eastern coast of Korea. MyeongHee and I had gone there a couple of times to escape the city’s summer heat by relaxing in the shade of trees along the river. Back then, the banks of the river were as thick with Koreans as the leaves on the trees shading us.

We had tried to go to the waterfalls back then, but the road was clogged with cars and the parking lots were all full. We would have had to walk more than a mile uphill in stifling heat to get to the falls. We weren’t interested in hiking far to get to cool waters, so we stayed near the main road and the rushing stream.

This week, I had the place to myself and the forest echoed with my footfalls. The trees were all bare of leaves and the slight breeze whistled easily through and around them. It’s the dry season here and the stream, although still running, was smaller than I imagine it would be in the hot, rainy summer. Still, the falls were beautiful and tinkling of the water begged me to come back in the summer when the swollen stream fills the gaps in the rocks and the sounds of rushing water would drown out all else. I think it will take getting up early to beat the crowds and keep from having to walk too far to see this in full flow.