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.
From Gyeongju it runs 285 km to Gyeongju; allow about 4 h 37 of riding. It goes by way of Yangdong Cluster: Yangdong Village, Petroglyphs along the Bangucheon Stream, Gaya Tumuli and back through Petroglyphs along the Bangucheon Stream. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Gyeongju's tumuli look like a row of green breasts rising out of a lawn, and that is exactly what makes the Daereungwon park so memorable. The mounds are the royal tombs of the Silla kingdom, which ruled the south-east of the Korean peninsula for nearly a thousand years, and eventually unified the peninsula in the seventh century. The kings and queens were buried in chambers of wood and stone, sealed under a mountain of river stones and then covered with earth, and in some of them excavators found treasures: gold crowns with branching antler-like uprights, belts, earrings and glass vessels from as far away as the Mediterranean.
Read the complete Tumuli Park Belt write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Tumuli Park Belt is where the day begins. Next is Yangdong Cluster: Yangdong Village.
Yangdong is a village that was never really meant to be seen. The Wolseong Son clan and the Yeogang Yi clan settled in this fold of hills north of Gyeongju in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and over the next few hundred years the two families built the tiled mansions of the elite on the upper slopes and the thatched houses of everyone else below, all in careful relation to the hillside. It is one of the best preserved clan villages in Korea, and in 2010 it joined Hahoe, near Andong, on UNESCO's list of historic villages of Korea.
Read the complete Yangdong Cluster: Yangdong Village write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Yangdong Cluster: Yangdong Village comes up about 23 km into the recorded legs. Next is Petroglyphs along the Bangucheon Stream.
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.
about 78 km into the recorded legs you reach Petroglyphs along the Bangucheon Stream. Next is Gaya Tumuli.
Right in the middle of Gimhae, a busy city just west of Busan, a low ridge of grassy mounds rises between apartment blocks and roads. These are the Daeseong-dong tumuli, the burial ground of the rulers of Geumgwan Gaya, one of the small kingdoms of the Gaya confederacy that flourished in the south of the Korean peninsula from the first centuries AD until it was absorbed by Silla in the sixth century. In 2023 a group of Gaya burial sites, including these, was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list.
Read the complete Gaya Tumuli write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Gaya Tumuli, about halfway. Next is back through 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 through Petroglyphs along the Bangucheon Stream sits at 202 km, about halfway. Next is back through Yangdong Cluster: Yangdong Village.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Yangdong Cluster: Yangdong Village write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Yangdong Cluster: Yangdong Village comes up about 260 km into the recorded legs. Next is Tumuli Park Belt.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Tumuli Park Belt write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Tumuli Park Belt closes the day.
Tumuli Park Belt → Yangdong Cluster: Yangdong Village is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Yangdong Cluster: Yangdong Village → Petroglyphs along the Bangucheon Stream is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Petroglyphs along the Bangucheon Stream → Gaya Tumuli is 63 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Gaya Tumuli → back through Petroglyphs along the Bangucheon Stream is 61 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Petroglyphs along the Bangucheon Stream → back through Yangdong Cluster: Yangdong Village is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Yangdong Cluster: Yangdong Village → Tumuli Park Belt is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.