Visit to Gangwon-do Provincial Arboretum in Chuncheon, South Korea -- #12 on the Chuncheon Tourist Map

Julianne and I decided to get out of the apartment this afternoon and head over to Gangwon-do's Provincial Arboretum in Chuncheon. It's #12 on the Chuncheon tourist map.

It was a little cold but the blue skies always make up for that in my mind.

I still find it amazing that Chuncheon is surrounded by mountain ranges.

It costs about 7 000won to get from our apartment to the arboretum. From GS Mart in Chuncheon it takes about 10-15 minutes by taxi.

Bathrooms and gift shop (A.K.A. "Store for Forest Products"--uh-huh).

Entrance/exit into the parking lot--Julianne and I think the "Goodbye" sign is funny.

Ticket booth . . . tickets are 1 000won each.

Main pathway that runs through the arboretum.

Cute is definitely a part of the Korisney aesthetic.

There is a greenhouse with three parts. The pamphlet says there is a sub-tropical botanical garden, a foliage botanical garden, and a "succulent botanical garden" (A.K.A. the desert area).

I really liked this tree that is to the left of the greenhouses.

I spent a lot time taking pics of this tree . . .

I like the textures of the bark here.

The name of my tree . . .

Moving on we saw some cool Redwood trees. I tried to get a good shot with the mountains in the background.

I took this awesome pic of Julianne with her new sunglasses!

We decided to head into the greenhouses to check out what was inside. It was alright . . . but nothing spectacular.

Spiny! (If you watch Joss Whedon shows you'll catch my 'clever' pun, lol.)

I've been reading about how to change the "White Balance" settings on my camera lately and decided to try to get the green hues of the above cactus to stand out more . . . nope--need to read more! This pic is still pretty cool though . . .

It "looks" fuzzy and soft . . . but it ain't.

Uhm . . . yeah.

Danger . . .

More cacti . . .

This one is neat. It's yellow on top and green on the bottom.

And more cacti . . .

Julianne says this looks like Arizona . . .

In the next greenhouse there were at least a few plants that had some kind of blossoms . . . and colors other than green.

Needless to say I spent some time taking quite a few pics of these yellow flowers.

I just learned how to go into my camera settings and change the power of the flash on my camera. It's really cool because this allows me to use just enough light to enhance the colors while at the same time bringing out the detail and avoid washing everything out with too much flash.

This one is probably my favorite of the lot . . .

It took me about 10 tries with altering the flash power settings before I got it looking good . . .

Back outside we walked around for a bit more but the winter season is not really the best time to go to the arboretum. It wasn't all that bad because we wanted to get out of the apartment and get some fresh air--but I think spring, summer, or early fall would be a much better time to choose to visit the arboretum.

This kind of pavilion is a pretty typical sight in Korea . . .

Attack of the killer green squirrels . . .

They cloned the bears from the front gate . . .

Julianne thinks these ostriches are hysterical . . .

We discovered that there's also a "Museum of Forestry" at the arboretum. In the distance you can see the greenhouses. Behind me is the museum--don't ask me why but I totally forgot to take a pic of the building. We went inside it to use the bathroom and it looks like it's worth taking a walk around as long as several hundred stuffed birds and animals don't bother you.

I walked over to the edge of the arboretum to take a picture of the mountain landscape . . .

. . . and then we headed home.

It was a really nice afternoon . . . until we got home and tried to do some laundry . . . more to come on that later.

J