Mt. Hakusan Hike Hirasedo (Nagano)

Hakusan 2702m is one of the three “holy” volcanos together with Mr. Fuji and Tateyama. The Hirasedo trailhead (from Gifu) is not very busy and easy to reach from Nagoya. It also has an incredibly blue dam lake at the bottom and an open-air onsen next to it. Watch out for the closures of the access road and make sure it's open before you drive out there.

		
⏲︎	Time: 7-10h
✎	Kanji: 白山
⚲ 	Location: Nagano
↔	Distance: 15.5km
✮	Difficulty: Intermediate
ᨒ	Elevation Gain: 1637m
☀	Dayhike
☉	Hiking Season: mid July
	to mid October

Access

Car

The access road for the Hirasedo trailhead is closed for most of the year, and usually only open from June to September/October. Even then, it's often closed depending on weather and after rain due to frequent rockfall, etc. The road is called 451 and you'll have to check beforehand if it's open. The road is one lane only and quite narrow. Be careful when driving at night and with oncoming traffic.

Public Transportation

If you want to use public transportion you need to start from the Bettodeai trailhead and Ishikawa side.

Trail description

The trail starts out steep and behind the little wooden shelter next to the first parking lot. You’ll climb well maintained log steps through the forest. This section is steep and you are covering a large portion of the elevation gain in short distance. After about 2-3h you’ll reach Okura Shelter. The shelter is a great break spot or free option to turn this hike into an overnight hike.

Not long after the shelter, the hike opens up and you can get your first views of Hakusan on the right.

From the shelter hut it's about an hour to Hakusan Murodo, the big visitor center and hut just below the summit. There are toilets, restaurant, snacks etc.

From Murodo it’s another 40min to the summit. After the peak and shrine descent to the backside towards the ponds.

The crater plateau around the peak has lots of little ponds that are a very intense blue color. You can loop around the whole area and get out again at Murodo. If you have extra time the detour up to Onanjigamine also has some great views of the whole plateau. (45min extra)

Then it's back down the same way and don't forget to stop by the onsen. There is also a waterfall a 10min walk from the road if you finish early.