Hikes in Japan: Mt. Yotei (羊蹄山) via the Hirafu (ヒラフ) Trailhead

Basic Information

• Name: Mt. Yotei (羊蹄山) via the Hirafu Trailhead
• Where: Niseko, Hokkaido
• Distance: 8.5 miles
• Max Elevation: 6,227 feet (1,898 meters)
• Elevation Gain: 5,051 feet
• Time: 7-9 hours
• Difficulty: Hard
• More Information: Niseko Tourism

Google Earth Map of the Mt. Yotei (羊蹄山) Trail

Elevation Map of Mt. Yotei (羊蹄山)

Directions

There are multiple trailheads that can be used to hike up Mt. Yotei.  I used the Hirafu Trailhead located at the Lake Hangetsu Campground:

Getting to the campground is pretty easy.  From Niseko village just take Highway 5 north for about 7 miles until you see the below sign on the right side of the road:

Follow the country road towards Mt. Yotei until you see the below sign:

A left here leads to the parking lot for Hangetsu Lake and continuing straight on the road leads to the campground.  The road to the campground narrows as it enters into Shikotsu Toya National Park.  The road ends at the parking lot for the Hangetsu Lake Campground.

Parking

The parking lot at the Hangetsu Lake Campground can fit around 30 cars.  When I arrived at 06:30 in the morning on a summer weekday, there was only two spots left in the parking lot:

I recommend getting to the parking lot before 6:30 AM to be able to find parking.  If no spots are available, additional parking can found back at Hangetsu Lake, but that will require about a half mile walk up the road to the campground.

Narrative

The thing I most wanted to do during my visit to Hokkaido was to hike up the 6,227 foot volcano called Mt. Yotei (羊蹄山).  The name Yotei translates in Japanese to “sheep-hoof mountain”.  The volcano is also known as Ezo Fuji (蝦夷富士).  Ezo was the old name of the island of Hokkaido which translates the name to “Hokkaido’s Mt. Fuji” since it looks so much like the more famous Japanese mountain located just outside of Tokyo.  I decided to hike up the mountain using the Hirafu (ヒラフ) trailhead since it was the shortest approach.  The shortness however meant that was also the steepest hike up the mountain.  The Hirafu Trailhead is located directly behind the Hangetsu Lake Campground:

At the trailhead there is sign in and sign out roster that all hikers need to fill out before and after their hike.  There are also a few signs at the trailhead such as this one that shows the National Park boundaries and the four trails that lead up Mt. Yotei:

Hokkaido is well known for its wildlife and during my trip to the island I did see multiple deer and red foxes.  The island is also home to Asiatic Black Bears which are known to live on Mt. Yotei, which unfortunately I did not see:

Finally here is the sign pointing hikers towards the Mt. Yotei Trail:

The first half mile of the hike is a really nice stroll through a beautiful forest:

However, even during this stretch of the hike I would find downed trees I would need to climb over or under:

This was a recurring theme during the first half of the hike where the larger trees grow.  However, the second half of the hike does not have as large trees thus there wasn’t any really tree issues on the trail.  Along the the Mt. Yotei Trail there are station numbers posted about every half kilometer:

After the first station the trail begins its steep ascent up Mt. Yotei:

Mt. Yotei has no water sources during the summer and even its one spring marked by this sign had no water when I hiked by it:

This means that hikers should bring plenty of water to support them for the duration of their hike on Mt. Yotei.  I had three two liter water bottles on me and was plenty of water for myself.  As the trail quickly ascended up the mountain I was rewarded with a view looking across the valley below towards the ski village of Hirafu:

I could also see the largest city in the area, Kutchan which has a population of ~15,000 people:

I made great time ascending from Station 1 to Station 2:

Along this section of the hike I began to notice more wildflowers along the trail.  Here are some blue wildflowers:

Here are some yellow wildflowers:

I could occasionally see some berries as well:

I will see making great time as a I came to Station 3:

I was passing a number of people along the hike, but it was at the stations where I passed the most people since that is where they tended to congregate at to rest in preparation to hike to the next station.  The people I met along the trail were always super polite and had fun listening to me practice my Japanese.  Between Station 3 and Station 4 is when I entered into the clouds that were shrouding Mt. Yotei that morning:

I think this must be the part of the mountain that receives the most moisture because the vegetation around the trail was huge in some sections:

All the moisture along the trail also meant there was a lot of mushrooms to see as well:

When I reached Station #4, I still found myself engulfed in clouds:

After Station #4 the trail began to get rockier:

I still felt great ascending the mountain when I hit Station #5:

After Station #5 the trail was becoming muddier which made it slippery in some sections:

There was also a section of the trail that I had to crawl under down trees again as well:

I still felt good when I reached Station #6:

Just after Station #6 emerged above the clouds for the first time:

When I reached Station #7 I was definitely beginning to feel the elevation gain of this steep hike:

After Station #7 I found myself stopping to take more quick breaks to take in the views of the cloud tops:

By the time I reached Station #8 I was definitely ready to reach the top of the mountain:

After Station #8 there were no longer any large trees thus giving me plenty of good views to see:

I could even see other large peaks sticking up above the clouds:

I could also see how steep the slopes of Mt. Yotei really were:

I next came to a rocky section where I could see the final Station #9 sign just above me:

At the Station #9 sign there is a trail fork.  Going left leads to Mt. Yotei’s summit, while going right leads to the Yotei Hut:

I made a left and followed the trail towards the crater rim of Mt. Yotei:

I next came to another trail sign that pointed the way towards the summit crater:

Here was the view below me as I approached the summit crater:

I next came to a steep and slippery section that a rope had been installed to assist hikers:

Even up here at these higher altitudes I noticed that mushrooms were still able to grow:

I saw a lot of these purple and white looking flowers as well:

I next came to another set of signs where taking a left led to Mt. Yotei’s crater rim:

Here was the view behind me where I could just see the village of Hirafu under the clouds:

Here is the final home stretch of trail before reaching the crater rim:

Once I reached the crater rim I came upon another sign.  This sign directed me to go left to reach the true summit of Mt. Yotei:

At the sign I noticed that Mt. Yotei actually has two calderas that compose its summit crater.  There was one small caldera directly in front of me and a much larger caldera adjacent to it:

I had another steep climb ahead of me to hike further up the crater rim of Mt. Yotei:

From the crater rim I could make out a couple of mountains sticking out above the clouds just like Mt Yotei:

Here is a closer look at both mountains which I am unsure of their names:

I also had a view towards the west where I could see the Sea of Japan:

Here is a view looking across the smaller caldera over to the larger one:

Here is the view looking down into the smaller caldera:

From here the trail continued to ascend towards the summit of Mt. Yotei:

I passed another sign along the way:

After passing the sign it appeared the trail was going to be getting rockier:

The trail did get rockier, but it was still an easy hike.  Here is a nice panorama picture I took of the main summit caldera:

Here is the sign pointing towards the true summit of Mt. Yotei:

Directly ahead of me I could see people hanging out on the summit of Mt. Yotei:

A short while later I was a t the summit and took this picture of the wooden pole that had a cue of people waiting in line to take a picture of:

Here is the view looking down into the crater from Mt. Yotei’s true summit:

Unlike other volcanoes I have climbed, this one did not have any steam coming out of it.  Mt. Yotei is still considered an active volcano even though it is believed to not have erupted for about 5,000 years:

I spent about 30 minutes hanging out at the summit eating some snacks and getting hydrated in preparation for completing my hike around Mt. Yotei’s crater.  I noticed that most people were hiking to the summit and then turning around not hiking the full crater trail.  This is because after the summit, the trail becomes a consistent rock scramble to navigate.  Fortunately there are white arrows painted on the rocks to assist with the scrambling:

This definitely slowed down my progress on the trail and it was also surprisingly hot on the summit because of the direct sunlight and no wind.  Here is a look back at the summit from this section of the trail:

Here is a panorama from the rocky section of the trail:

Here is a panorama in the opposite direction looking east over the clouds:

Here is an unusually flat rock I spotted along the rocky section of the Mt. Yotei Trail:

Here is another panorama picture from the rocky section of the trail:

The rock scrambling was fun at first because it broke up the monotony of the constant trudge upward on this trail.  However, I was happy to exit the rocky section by the time I got to the end of it and back on a regular trail again:

Here is a view from the south side of the crater looking north:

Directly across from me I could see people standing on the true summit:

Here was the view looking down into the caldera where during the winter backcountry skiers will hike up here and actually ski down into the caldera:

I would think that in the late spring and early summer when the snows melt that there is probably a crater lake that forms.  However, in late August when I hiked up here there was just a large mud hole at the bottom of the crater:

As I walked around the crater I noticed the cabin below me that looked really nice where hikers can stay overnight at:

As I continued to hike around the crater I next came upon an old structure:

I don’t know what this structure was for, but my guess is that it my have been an old shelter replaced by the newer shelter on the slopes of the volcano:

Here is a view of Mt. Yotei from this old structure:

Looking down the trail from the shelter I could see where the Hirafu Trail I took to access the crater rim was at:

I hiked down the trail towards the Hirafu Trail:

I took in some final views of Mt. Yotei’s crater as I hiked down the trail:

I soon found myself back at the Hirafu Trail sign:

From the trail sign, it was just a matter of retracing my steps back down to the Hirafu Trailhead:

The walk down Mt. Yotei was tough because of how steep the trail was.  I slipped a number of times on the muddy trail.  Fortunately I did not receive any injuries, but it was extremely annoying to keep losing my balance.  I did not bring my microspikes that I frequently used on trails in Hawaii.  My microspikes would have made the descent much easier.   Also my quadricep muscles received a quite a work out from the constant steep down hill walk.  I was sore for quite a few days after this hike.  Anyway, after I broke through clouds, I did have some nice views of the Niseko area again. Here is a view of the city of Kutchan:

Here is a view of the village of Hirafu on the right and on the left the Niseko Hilton Resort can be seen as well.  Both locations are popular ski resorts built on the slopes of the 4,291 foot (1,308 meter) Mt. Niseko-Annupuri which is famous in the winter for its epic amounts of snowfall:

I was extremely happy when I passed Station #1 which meant I got to hike the last half mile on a relatively flat trail through the forest:

Soon enough I found myself back at the trailhead where I signed myself out in the log book:

Overall my roundtrip hike on the Mt. Yotei Trail was 8.5 miles which included the distance around the crater rim.  If I had not completely hiked around the crater rim the hike would have been about a mile less in distance.  It took me just under 3 hours to reach the summit and then about 1 hour and 30 minutes to hike around the crater which included my break time at the summit.  It then took me about 2 hours and 45 minutes to descend.   My descent time was only 13 minutes faster than my ascent time.  The elevation gain up Mt. Yotei is over 1,000 feet per mile, so it is a pretty tough hike, but the trail is in good shape which makes it easier to ascend, but the mud on the descent does make it slippery.  Most people in decent shape should be able to complete this hike if they are persistent and take plenty of breaks.

Conclusion

My hike up Mt. Yotei (羊蹄山) ranks as one of the best hikes I have ever done.  The Tongariro Crossing in New Zealand is probably my all time favorite hike, but Mt. Yotei would make my top 10 list of best hikes.  It was challenging, had great views, a good trail, and was just a fun hike.  One of the things I ask myself to determine if a trail is a great hike is if I would do it again.  Mt. Yotei I would definitely do it again.  I would like to hike up using all four of the different trails.  I would even like to come back sometime and do a winter ascent, that is how much I liked this hike.  For anyone visiting the Niseko region of Hokkaido I highly recommend checking out this great hike.