Hakkoda Gourd Trail around the Tamoyachi Marshland
The Hakkoda Gourd Trail is an easy 2-kilometer hike that takes approximately one hour to complete. Accessible via a 10-minute ride up Mt. Tamoyachidake on the Hakkoda Ropeway, the trail offers impressive views of Mt. Hakkoda.
The figure-eight-shaped course begins and ends at the Hakkoda Ropeway Summit Park Station. Along the trail and from various observation decks, you can see peaks in both the southern and northern Hakkoda mountain range, including Mt. Kushigamine in the southern range and Mt. Akakuradake, Mt. Idodake and Mt. Odake in the northern range. There are also magnificent views of Mutsu Bay.
Each season brings its own delights. Late spring and summer are the best time to enjoy marshland and alpine flowering plants, including mitsugashiwa (bogbean), hinazakura primrose, Hakusan rhododendron, kinkoka asphodel, and kurogiboshi plantain lily. In winter, snow and ice cover the snowy forests of oshirabiso (Maries’ fir) trees on the south and west slopes, creating the extraordinary forms that have earned the trees the nickname “snow monsters.”