Japan
Daisetsuzan
Japan's first autumn colour igniting an alpine plateau where brown bears roam unchallenged.
Autumn arrives here first. In mid-September, when the rest of Japan is still green, the peaks of Daisetsuzan blaze red and gold across the largest and wildest national park in Hokkaidō. Daisetsuzan spans some 2,268 square kilometres of volcanic ridges, alpine meadow and brown-bear country — a landscape that cares nothing for human schedules.
The park is built around a cluster of volcanoes, with Mount Asahidake, Hokkaidō's highest peak at 2,291 metres, still steaming from its fumaroles. A ropeway from Asahidake Onsen lifts you to the ponds below the summit, where a walk of an hour or two takes in the vents, the mirror pools and the alpine flowers; from Sōunkyō, another ropeway starts the climb up Kurodake. The Grand Traverse runs some eighty kilometres across the massif over several days, hut to hut, and the Sōunkyō gorge below it is walled in columns of basalt. Brown bears and deer live throughout the park, and the visitor centre at Sōunkyō teaches you what to do about the former before you set out.
Solo
The Grand Traverse crosses the massif over several days, hut to hut, through bear country on ridgelines above the cloud — walked with a guide or a group, never alone. This is not hiking — it is mountaineering in slow motion.
Friends
Multi-day ridge walks shared between huts, with the mutual support of group navigation through volcanic terrain and weather that changes by the hour.
- Hokkaidō's largest national park spans some 2,268 square kilometres of volcanic peaks, alpine meadow and brown-bear territory.
- The Grand Traverse runs about eighty kilometres across the massif over several days, hut to hut above the cloud.
- Autumn colour arrives here before anywhere else in Japan — mid-September, when the lowlands are still green.
- Sōunkyō gorge is walled in columns of basalt, with waterfalls dropping from the cliffs and a winter festival of frozen falls.
Venison and potato stew at a mountain lodge when you come down off the ridge, the deer from the park's own forests.
A Sōunkyō onsen ryokan dinner of Hokkaidō crab, sweetcorn and melon after the gorge.
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