CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 342 km round trip from Ulsan - roughly 5 h 11 in the saddle. It goes by way of Yangdong Cluster:Oksanseowon Confucian Aca, Gyo-dong and Songhyeon-dong Tumuli and back through Yangdong Cluster:Oksanseowon Confucian Aca. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
On a cliff face above a quiet stream in the hills west of Ulsan, prehistoric people carved hundreds of images into the rock: whales, turtles, deer, tigers, boats full of men, hunters with spears and nets. The whales are the most striking, with species that can still be identified, such as right whales and humpbacks, and scenes that seem to show whaling from boats, making the Bangudae petroglyphs one of the oldest records of whaling anywhere. A little upstream, the Cheonjeon-ri petroglyphs, with geometric patterns, animals and later inscriptions from the Silla period, add another layer. In 2025, the Petroglyphs along the Bangucheon Stream were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Read the complete Petroglyphs along the Bangucheon Stream write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Petroglyphs along the Bangucheon Stream is where the day begins. Next is Yangdong Cluster:Oksanseowon Confucian Aca.
In the green hills east of Gyeongju, where the old Silla capital gives way to the rice fields and pine woods that lead toward the East Sea, the Joseon dynasty left a different kind of monument. Oksanseowon is a Confucian academy, a seowon, built in the sixteenth century to honour the scholar Yi Eon-jeok, known by his pen name Hoejae, who lived from 1491 to 1553. It belongs to the Yangdong cluster, part of the Historic Villages of Korea inscribed by UNESCO in 2010 together with Hahoe, and it shows how the Neo-Confucian elite wanted to live, study and be remembered.
Read the complete Yangdong Cluster:Oksanseowon Confucian Aca write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Yangdong Cluster:Oksanseowon Confucian Aca comes up about 62 km into the recorded legs. Next is Gyo-dong and Songhyeon-dong Tumuli.
The rounded grassy mounds rising behind Changnyeong look almost like natural hills until you notice how regular they are. These are the Gyo-dong and Songhyeon-dong tumuli, burial mounds of the rulers of Bihwa, one of the small kingdoms of the Gaya confederacy that flourished in the south of the Korean peninsula between roughly the first and sixth centuries before being absorbed by Silla. In 2023 they became part of a UNESCO listing that brings together seven Gaya tomb clusters, and they are among the most atmospheric of the group.
Read the complete Gyo-dong and Songhyeon-dong Tumuli write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 171 km into the recorded legs you reach Gyo-dong and Songhyeon-dong Tumuli. Next is back through Yangdong Cluster:Oksanseowon Confucian Aca.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Yangdong Cluster:Oksanseowon Confucian Aca write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Yangdong Cluster:Oksanseowon Confucian Aca, late in the day. Next is Petroglyphs along the Bangucheon Stream.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Petroglyphs along the Bangucheon Stream write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Petroglyphs along the Bangucheon Stream. That is the ride.
Petroglyphs along the Bangucheon Stream → Yangdong Cluster:Oksanseowon Confucian Aca is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Yangdong Cluster:Oksanseowon Confucian Aca → Gyo-dong and Songhyeon-dong Tumuli is 109 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Gyo-dong and Songhyeon-dong Tumuli → back through Yangdong Cluster:Oksanseowon Confucian Aca is 111 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Yangdong Cluster:Oksanseowon Confucian Aca → Petroglyphs along the Bangucheon Stream is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.