Numazu Alps (沼津アルプス)

Today I hiked the Numazu Alps, which lies alongside the city of Numazu in Shizuoka. The name “alps” makes it sound like it’s a really high mountain range but it actually has a max elevation of only 391m. Even with its low elevation, since there’s a lot of ups-and-downs on this trail, you end up with about 1000m in elevation gain over 10km.

From the Numazu Alps carpark, its a short walk to the first of seven peaks on the course, Mt Kanakuni (香貫山, Kanakuni-yama).

The beginning was the easiest part of the trail, and I passed by a couple of elderly hikers and locals out on a walk. The alps are intersected by a road so after descending you’ll walk along the road for a bit before beginning your climb back up.

Once you reach the second trailhead, this is where the “real” hike begins.

The climbs and descents were all quite steep on this trail, but luckily there were a lot of ropes, which I heavily relied on today because some parts were a bit muddy. I think without the ropes this would be a very annoying hike.

After a short but steep climb, we’re onto our second peak, Mt Yoko (横山 Yoko-yama).

There’s a decent stretch on this trail where you get to be out in the sunshine, which felt very warm and relaxing for a February hike.

Then we’re onto our third peak, Mt Tokura (徳倉山, Tokura-yama), which comes with our first clear view of Mt Fuji.

Mt Kanakuni (the first peak) and Mt Tokura were the two peaks I was most interested in climbing today, as they are both part of the 36 Views of Mt Fuji series.

The mountains you can see in front of Fuji are Mt Ashitaka and Mt Echizen-dake.

The temperature was actually very warm today, with a top of around 15C, and with the ocean views it almost felt like I was at the beach. I usually run a little hot, so today I was hiking in a short-sleeve shirt, which one old hiker I passed by was super surprised by.

You continue to get a great view of Suruga Bay from the fourth peak, Mt Shige (志下山, Shige-yama).

From here you’re back amongst the trees. I felt like this course was fairly varied in terms of its scenery, unlike some mountains where it’s all just the same forest.

Then we hit our fifth peak, Mt Kowashizu (小鷲頭山, Kowashizu-san).

The six peak and second-last peak is Mt Washizu (鷲頭山, Washizu-san) which is also the highest peak at 392m.

And finally we reach our seventh and final peak at Mt Obira (大平山, Obira-yama).

From here it’s a very steep descent down to the bus stop, where I got on a bus back to the carpark I started at. The bus only comes once an hour so I was really rushing here, and ended up making it with five minutes to spare.

It’s a 15 minute walk after you get off the bus to get back to the carpark, and it’s all uphill. I was pretty tired by this point.

Finally before heading home, as always I took a detour to a nearby onsen. I opted for one that was about a 20 minute drive away (it had the best reviews) and conveniently located right before getting onto the freeway. I will say it was probably not the nicest onsen I have been to, but it’ll do in a pinch.

Hiking course details

Public transport access with example schedule

If you take this course via public transport, the expected course time is 8 hours.

Since it only needs a train, there are a lot of options to get there (including express trains that will cost an extra 2000 yen but get you there an hour quicker).

The bus I got on at Yamaguchi-michi actually goes all the way back to Numazu station, and presumably you can get on the bus in the other direction as well. So a potential modification might be to get the bus from Numazu station to near the carpark (Kurose bus stop), or to get the bus back to Numazu station from Yamaguchi-michi.

Car access details

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