Shikotsu-Tōya National Park

Shikotsu-Tōya National Park (支笏洞爺国立公園, Shikotsu Tōya Kokuritsu Kōen) is a national park in the western part of the island of

Geography

Shikotsu-Tōya National Park is located near Sapporo in the southwestern corner of Hokkaido.^[1]

The park can be divided into roughly three areas according to the Japanese Ministry of Environment:

• The Mount Yōtei area
• The area around caldera Lake Tōya, Mount Usu and Mount Shōwa-shinzan (Tōya Caldera and Usu Volcano Geopark), new volcanoes which had risen from the plain as a result of successive eruptions since 1944.^[2]
• The area around Lake Shikotsu (支笏湖, Shikotsu-ko) is encircled by active volcanoes such as Mount Tarumae (樽前山, Tarumae-zan) (1,041 m), and Mount Eniwa (恵庭岳, Eniwa-dake) (1,320 m ).

There is also an area around

The nearest town is Shikotsu Kohan, a small "touristy" town with a visitor center on the lake's western shore, which can be reached by bus.[3]

Flora and fauna

The park contains mixed forests of

The area became a national park on May 16, 1949.[2] It has three visitor centers: Lake Shikotsu Visitor Center, Toya Takarada Nature Experience House and Toyako Visitor Center and Volcano Science Museum.^[1]

Travel

It can be reached via

• 
  Mount Tarumae as seen from Lake Shikotsu
• 
  Mount Yōtei
• 
  Noboribetsu

  hot spring
• 
  Lake Shikotsu

References

See also

• List of national parks of Japan

External links

• Media related to Shikotsu-Toya National Park at Wikimedia Commons
• Shikotsu-Toya National Park travel guide from Wikivoyage
• Tōya Usu Geopark (English, Japanese)