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Daisetsuzan NP, Hokkaido
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Late-August frost starts Daisetsuzan’s autumn high on the mountain; over about a month, the color front descends toward Sōunkyō. On September 18, 2025, Red Peak’s summit was already nearly wintry.
At Ginsendai, crimson isn’t only in the canopy: alpine plants like chinguruma and dwarf shrubs turn deep red at your feet, while nanakamado reddens and birch turns yellow above.
Ginsendai has a second sky: on lucky early mornings, clouds pool below the trailhead like an ocean, visible from a photo spot just downhill from the parking area.
Ginsendai’s name is tied to an old belief that this high trailhead was the source of Ginga (Galaxy) Falls in Sōunkyō, far below in the valley.
The Daisetsuzan mountains framing Ginsendai belong to a landscape Upper-Kamikawa Ainu call Kamuy Mintara, “the garden where the gods play”—a revered place, not merely a pretty backdrop.
Ginsendai’s road was meant to go farther: a survey for a cross-Daisetsuzan route began in 1958, but planners canceled the proposed section between Ginsendai and Yukomanbetsu in 1967.
At peak foliage, car controls reduce congestion and exhaust; park volunteers patrol the trail, guide visitors, remind them to catch the last shuttle, and keep hikers on paths to protect fragile alpine plants.
