Drive from Utoro to Akan Mashu National Park with stops at sunflower field, Road to the Sky, Mount Shari Viewpoint and Sakura Falls

27 August 2023

After staying 2 nights in Utoro where we explored the Shiretoko National Park, we continued our road trip with a short drive to the Akan Mashu National Park.

Our route would pass by Shari town, which gave us another opportunity to visit the Road to the Sky viewpoint (location in Google Map) and also a sunflower field (location in Google map) that we saw a few days ago when we were on our way to Utoro. It was drizzling on that day so we did not manage to shoot nice pictures. We were blessed with better weather this morning.

Sunflower field near Shari

We parked our car safely on a small bay by the road. Although there is no fence, we made it a point not to encroach onto the farmer’s field.

Enjoying the views from the side of the road.

Fortunately, we were on higher ground so we were able to get good views of the entire field. We could even see the town of Shari and the Sea of Okhotsk behind the sunflower field.

We could see the town of Shari and the Sea of Okhotsk behind the sunflower field.

With the morning sun behind us and the sunflower field to the west of the road, all the blooms were facing us! You get the feeling of a parade commander standing in front of his troops.

    

Road to the Sky viewpoint

The Road to the Sky viewpoint is just a few hundred meters down the same road. This is a 28 km straight road that seems to lead to the sky in the horizon.  

We met some bikers with awesome looking Harley Davidson bikes.

Awesome machine at the Road to Sky viewpoint.

Thank heaven the sky is clear and we could see the road leading to the sky in the horizon.

Tour buses heading to the Road to the Sky viewpoint. They did not stop. Surprising.

Driving down the Road to the Sky

We continued towards Akan Mashu National Park by driving down the Road to the Sky.

Driving down the Road to the Sky.

We turned off at Highway 1115, somewhere near Shari and took the road southwards. We could see farmlands with Mount Shari in the background from the road.

Mount Shari viewpoint

View of Mount Shari from the car.

There is actually a roadside viewing area with parking lots (location in Google Map) where one could get good views of Mount Shari. Just before that, we saw a farm with fields of wilted sunflowers. Sunflowers blooming time span is short and weather dependent. So we were indeed lucky to have enjoyed seeing the field of golden sunflowers earlier.

View of Mount Shari partially shrouded by clouds at the Mount Shari roadside viewpoint.

Sakura Falls

One of the good things about visiting Hokkaido in summer is that we could potentially observe the salmon run. One of the best places to watch salmon jumping up and over waterfalls in Hokkaido is the Sakura Fall or Sakura-no-taki.

Sakura Falls is located along the Shari River and it is definitely worthwhile to take a slight detour off highway 1115 to go check out the salmons. Few knew of this place and the only way to get to the falls is by car (location of car park in Google Map). 

An information signboard at the car park indicated that about 3000 cherry salmon come back from the ocean to spawn at this river every year. From early June to late August, especially on warmer days, one could see these salmons attempting to jump up and over the waterfall to get to the breeding grounds.

  Information about the salmon run at Sakura Falls.

Typical bear warning sign at the Sakura Falls car park.

Like many places of nature in Hokkaido, there was a sign warning of bears. Bears love to eat salmons, so it was not surprising to see this sign. 

The short trail leading to the waterfall was quite obvious from the car park. Since we were visiting almost at the end of the salmon run, I was prepared for disappointment. We did not see many salmons when we were at the Onnebetsu Bridge a couple of days ago.

After a short walk through a small forest, we came to the falls.

First sight of Sakura Falls. Two other families were at the falls.

Lo and behold!

Salmon attempting to jump over Sakura Falls. 

We could see many salmons attempting to jump over the 3 meters high waterfall. As a nature lover, this was one of the highlights of my trip. It was exciting to watch this amazing sight, live and in person.

We spent some time taking photos and videos of the salmon. My wife was cheering them on but during this time, we did not witness any fish making it over the falls! So sad.

Video of salmon attempting to jump over Sakura Falls in Hokkaido

 

  Reddish hue on the cherry salmon. Shot taken with my Canon G5X using 1/1600 sec time exposure.

A photo of the family before leaving Sakura Falls.

So far, our morning drive from Utoro to Akan Mashu National Park with sightseeing stops had gone according to plan.

From Sakura Falls, we returned to highway 1115 and continued our journey towards Kaminokoike (our next sightseeing stop) located in the Akan Mashu National Park.

More on our exploration of the Akan Mashu National Park in the next post.