Alpine Route: Peak Colors

One week after Raina's visit to the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route, I revisited the spectacular tourist route through the Northern Japan Alps and was able to confirm that the colors have moved down the mountain slopes by a few hundred meters in the meantime.

While the colors around Murodo, the highest point along the Alpine Route, were already beyond their peak, they were peaking today around the Tateyama Ropeway east of Murodo and around the Midagahara Highlands west of Murodo. They will continue to delight travelers along the route for a couple more weeks to come.

The vegetation around Kurobe Dam was still decidedly green, but the coloring process has clearly started since Raina's visit. A few more crisp nights are likely to make the seasonal spectacle descend to the elevations around the dam in the relatively near future.

The nanakamado bushes around Kurobedaira and the trees and bushes under the Tateyama Ropeway were at their peak today. After witnessing many prematurely dried up nanakamado bushes in Hokkaido earlier this autumn, I was relieved to see that the vegetation along the Tateyama-Kurobe Alpine Route has not suffered a similar fate due to this year's hot summer.

Murodo, the highest point along the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route has already seen some snow since Raina's visit last week. While the snow has mostly disappeared around the bus terminal again, so have most of the autumn colors. Nevertheless, the scenery around Murodo was spectacular today, not at last thanks to the wonderfully crisp and mild autumn weather.

My day of reporting ended on a high note, as the colors around the Midagahara Highland, where I would spend the night at one of the two local hotels today, were at their absolute peak.