Mt Meakan (雌阿寒岳)
The third mountain in our Hokkaido roadtrip was Mt Meakan (雌阿寒岳, meakan-dake), a 100 Famous Mountain located in Akan-Mashu National Park. It’s still an active volcano, and from the summit you can see a steady stream of smoke coming out of its crater, as well as its distinctive “Red pond” - which turned out to be more yellow than red!
Right next to Mt Meakan is its neighbour Mt Akan-Fuji (阿寒富士, akan-fuji), and the two mountains can be climbed as a set in a loop course. However we were quite tired at this point in our trip so we opted for the shortest possible course, an out-and-back starting at the Meakan Onsen trailhead (雌阿寒温泉登山口).
At only 5.8km and 800m of elevation gain, the course is quite steep, however you quickly leave the forest for a more exposed landscape, and with the great views I think it was a pretty fun climb.
For a weekday, there were quite a lot of hikers on this trail. We even saw one couple that we had passed while hiking Mt Shari (I didn’t say anything, but it seemed like they recognised us too!)
As you get near the summit, you can peer down into Mt Meakan’s crater to see the Red Pond (赤沼, aka-numa). There was also a huge flock of swallows darting about across the crater.
As we approached the peak, we discovered the likely reason why there were so many swallows - there was also quite a large amount of bugs. They were the same annoying variety of beetle that we saw at the summit of Mt Rausu. I’m not sure if there is some correlation with the elevation and these beetles showing up, as both mountains are around the 1500 to 1600m mark.
Unlike Mt Rausu though, there was also a lot of dead beetles on the ground, possible due to all the sulphur and smoke coming out of the crater.
For those doing the loop course, you can continue on past the peak and on towards Mt Akan-Fuji. We were planning on retracing our steps back down the mountain, but we did continue along the trail for another 5 minutes just to check out the second pond in the crater, known as the Blue Pond (青沼, ao-numa).
Although today’s mountain was quite short, I was feeling pretty tired so after getting a quick look at the pond I was ready to turn back. However my partner was full of energy so I watched him continue along the ridge to get a closer look at the pond.
Although we could’t see it today, Mt Akan-Fuji can also be seen on a clear day. I’m sure with this scenery the loop course is much more interesting than doing an out-and-back so I would recommend giving it a go if you have the time and stamina. But for us, it was back down the same way we came.
Once back at the Meakan Onsen trailhead, we headed to the nearby Nonaka Onsen (野中温泉).
It was with a little bit of trepidation that I visited this onsen. Usually onsens have a separate shower section where you can wash off the dirt before you jump into the onsen water, but this onsen was quite old and traditional and so only had the bare minimum - the onsen water itself. It didn’t provide any soap or shampoo either.
In this case, you’re supposed to sit by the edge of the water, and with a bowl, pour the water on yourself to get clean (and make sure it goes down the drain and not back into the pool of water). However I did see some women just get straight into the pool, so I don’t think there are any hard and fast etiquette rules around it.
The water is directly sourced from Mt Meakan - and since it was undiluted it was actually really, really hot and I couldn’t stay in it for long. But the interior of the onsen building was really pretty, and they even had some resident cats, which is quite unusual, so I would recommend stopping by (and maybe bringing your own soap) after your hike.
Alternatively, if you want an onsen that has more amenities, the nearest town of Akanko Onsen has a couple of onsen hotels which open their onsens to the general public for day-use.
Hiking course details
| Date climbed | Length | Course time |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-08-16 | 5.8km | 4h30min (the expected time for an average hiker without breaks) |
Since Mt Meakan is an active volcano, I recommend checking its warning level before climbing to make sure that it is at a level 1 and safe to climb.
We took the shortest possible course, an out-and-back from the Meakan Onsen trailhead (雌阿寒温泉登山口). There are toilets available at the trailhead.
If you take the 11km loop course instead, once reaching Mt Meakan, you can continue on towards Mt Akan-Fuji, before descending down towards the Lake Onneto trailhead (オンネトー登山口), and then walking along the road back to the onsen trailhead.
If you wanted to approach Mt Meakan from the other side, there is also a third course available from the Mt Meakan trailhead.
Public transportation access
Unfortunately this mountain is not very accessible via public transport as there are no buses running to the trailheads. If you wanted to take the loop course or the out-and-back course from the onsen like I did, you will need to take a taxi to the trailhead, which is 20 minutes from the nearest town of Akanko Onsen.
However, there is a third Mt Meakan trailhead (雌阿寒岳登山口) that is a 6km (or 95 minute) walk from the town. So if you were particularly fit and wanted to save some money on the taxi fare, you could either walk the whole thing (24km+) or get a taxi to the onsen trailhead and then walk back to town (18km+).
If you look at the people who use that trailhead on YAMAP, and look at the activity diaries in the 20km+ range, you can see the occasional person doing the whole thing on foot e.g. most recently I can see it took someone 10 hours and 28km. So it’s not completely impossible, although maybe not very realistic for the average person.
Car access details
There is free parking available at both the Meakan Onsen and Onneto trailheads. There was plenty of spots still available when we showed up around 9am on a weekday.
Camping at the Onneto Campground
We stayed at Onneto Campground (オンネトー野営場), next to the Lake Onneto trailhead. This was my favourite campsite of the trip! Unlike the other campsites we stayed at where they cut down trees to create a large clearing for campers, this place was still largely untouched, and we felt a lot more surrounded by nature. The price was pretty standard at 1000 yen per person. The reception building also served as a cafe and had some fancy hiking goods for sale as well, and apparently the building even has a shower, although I didn’t check it out.
It was a very peaceful place to set up camp, and very quiet too. Since the nearest grocery store is up to an hour away, maybe it’s this incovenience that deters campers? I would definitely recommend it if you are in the area.
The one thing to note is that the camping area does not have phone reception, but this is a great way to switch off from the outside world. If you need it, the reception building does have free Wi-Fi.
Sightseeing around Kushiro and Lake Akan
While in the area, we also did some sightseeing on our non-hiking days.
From here, it was onto the last leg of our Hokkaido roadtrip, where we would be climbing our fourth and final mountain, Mt Asahi, in Daisetsuzan National Park.
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