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 Yeonil it runs 243 km to Yeonil; allow about 3 h 56 of riding. The stops in between: Tumuli Park Belt, 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.
Yangdong is a village that still lives like the old Korea of the Joseon dynasty. It lies in a valley north of Gyeongju, in a bowl of low wooded hills, and it is home to some of the finest surviving traditional houses in the country, hundreds of tiled-roof and thatched homes spread over the slopes. Two great clans have dominated it for centuries, the Wolseong Son and the Yeogang Yi, and their families built the large tile-roofed mansions on the high ground with the thatched houses of the tenants below. The neat layout follows the principles of feng shui: the main houses face south with a hill behind and a stream in front. UNESCO listed Yangdong along with Hahoe in 2010 as the Historic Villages of Korea.
Read the complete Yangdong Cluster: Donggangseowon Confucian write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Yangdong Cluster: Donggangseowon Confucian is where the day begins. Next is Tumuli Park Belt.
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 comes up about 28 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 60 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 171 km, about halfway. Next is back through 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.
back through Tumuli Park Belt comes up about 217 km into the recorded legs. Next is Yangdong Cluster: Donggangseowon Confucian.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Yangdong Cluster: Donggangseowon Confucian write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Yangdong Cluster: Donggangseowon Confucian closes the day.
Yangdong Cluster: Donggangseowon Confucian → Tumuli Park Belt is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Tumuli Park Belt → Petroglyphs along the Bangucheon Stream is 32 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 62 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Petroglyphs along the Bangucheon Stream → back through Tumuli Park Belt is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Tumuli Park Belt → Yangdong Cluster: Donggangseowon Confucian is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.