Hiking Mt Yōtei - Makkari trail

Mt. Yōtei (羊蹄山) is a stratovolcano in Hokkaido’s Shikotsu-Tōya National Park. The highest peak is 1,898m, but there are also other peaks because there’s a 2-km-long circumference crater at the top (a pic of the crater awaits you below).

I made this hike in August 2024, with my sister and our friend. We rented a car for our trip, which made driving to the parking lot and campsite at the start pretty easy. There are 4 trails, outlined in this brochure, with the Makkari trail being the easiest and the most popular trail.

The official Japan travel website suggests a round-trip hike using the Makkari Trail would take 1 day / 9 hours so we planned an early start. Surprisingly, although we got there at 5.30am, the parking lot for the hike was very packed — Sunday morning must be popular for the avid Japanese hikers.

We had planned this hike to take place on Sunday because it was the only day where the forecast didn’t call for rain, but the sky didn’t look so promising at the start.

Many people passed us along the trail, very politely. The gentle twinkling of their bear bells preceded them, letting us know that we should step aside. Then, a smile and an ohayō gozaimasu as they hiked past.

The brochure warns us that “the trail steepens and zigzag after the 4th station”, but it wasn’t so noticeable. The trail was shrouded in clouds for our entire ascent until about the 6th station (1,321m) which made for a very muddy and damp walk.

Getting tired, which means more rest breaks and more photo ops at each station. Realising that the stations are not quite equidistant in distance but in elevation gain, with each station about 150m in elevation away.

Here, the sun peeking out at the 7th station. The views got increasingly better as we climbed upwards, with more and more sun as the clouds cleared up.

The first hint that a gorgeous view awaits us, if only we just climbed higher.

Just how steep are the mountain walls?! How fun it would be to ski down this.

Just before Station 9, the beautiful alpine terrain and low shrubs take over. No more clouds and also no more shade, but makes for gorgeous sky.

Station 9, with the sign pointing to the mountain hut, 山小屋.

The Yōtei hut sitting in the highlands, looking like a scene from The Sound of Music.

The crater from the top of the Makkari trail.

Hooray!! Celebrating at our own peak — by then we had been walking for about 6 and a half hours, which was quite a bit longer than the estimated 4-5 hours (assuming a 9 hour round trip). We ended up not going to the peakest peak at 1,898m, and making our finish at the remains/foundations of the old hut.

If you squint, you can just about see Lake Tōya in the distance, which is the centre of the Shikotsu-Tōya National Park.

We wore incredibly unsuitable footwear - I almost typed in “completely unsuitable” but that would probably entail hiking in flip-flops. My sister and I had white shoes, which were caked in mud all the way up. By the time we made our descent, the clouds had cleared up enough that most of the previously muddy ground had dried up, so our shoes were spared another mud bath. Slippery soles almost meant that I slipped 5 or 6 times on the way down, and unfortunately also fell onto the hiking stick - one time was enough to dent the carbon fibre, and the second time led to a clean break.

All in all, the hike took about 10.5 hours. The descent took about 4 hours, making good pace.

Giving thanks at the shrine for a safe round trip!