Unfortunately, the summit of Mount Asahidake remained hidden in clouds today

Welcome to the 2024 autumn color reporting on japan-guide.com! As usual (we have been reporting annually since 2008, except in 2021 and 2022), we start off with a visit to Hokkaido's Daisetsuzan National Park, where autumn colors appear earlier than anywhere else in Japan each year. Today, I visited the area around Mount Asahidake, the tallest peak on Hokkaido.

Unlike in more southern latitudes, which continued seeing far-above-average temperatures over the past couple of weeks, Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido experienced seasonal and even below-seasonal temperatures recently, which has led to a favorable development of the seasonal colors.

Today, I took the Asahikdake Ropeway from the small hot spring resort of Asahidake Onsen to the base of Mount Asahidake. I limited my hiking activities to the circular hiking trail found at the ropeway's upper station, which can be completed within an hour.

Arriving from a city where the thermometer hit 35 degrees on many days of the past week, I was surprised to find the season to have progressed quite far already around Mount Asahidake - not too far off the average year's schedule. Some of the best colors were found covering the mountain slopes below the ropeway itself, while the season already moved slightly beyond its peak around the upper station.

There was a 15-minute wait to enter the paid parking lot around 10am (it was a national holiday)
The colors at the bottom of the ropeway have started to change
The colors became more intensive as the ropeway gained altitude
Nice colors in the second half of the ropeway ride
Colorful slopes seen from the ropeway
Pond-dotted landscape
No view of the Asahidake peak and 6.7 degrees Celsius at the upper ropeway station

The nanakamado bushes around the upper station have already lost most of their leaves, and many continued carrying only some red berries. Many chinguruma flowers - or better: the flowers' fluffy remains - were also already beyond the peak of their autumnal beauty, but I was happy to still spot a few intact fields of this lovable plant.

The colors were a little beyond their peak around the upper station
A nanakamado bush which still held on to a few leaves
But many other nanakamado bushes were already barren or only carried some red berries
A field of chinguruma
What a lovable plant!

The autumn colors can be expected to gradually move further down the mountain slopes over the coming weeks, while the season won't last too much longer in the higher elevations, where the remaining colors may soon be covered up by the season's first snow falls.

The circular hiking course seen with Lake Chubetsu in the background
Asahidake's volcanic vents along the circular hiking trail
Red nanakamado berries
A chinguruma field with hikers
Spectacular scenery despite the autumn colors being slightly beyond peak
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