Visiting Mount Aso – Yomezuka, active volcano Mount Nakadake and Kusasenri grassland

8 November 2024

We stayed overnight at Minshuku Asogen located in Aso City so that we could visit Mount Aso and its volcanos in the morning. From Minshuku Asogen, we followed the directions given by Google Maps but could not find the inconspicuous turn-off from Highway 57. After a few unsuccessful attempts, going up and down Highway 57, we decided to ditch the route Google Maps recommended and just follow the road signs to Mount Aso instead.

The road signs pointed us to use Prefectural Road 111 that will lead us all the way to the Aso Volcano Museum and Mount Nakadake.

Highway 111, also known as the Aso Panorama Drive, is a scenic drive up the mountain. We drove slowly, looking out for Komezuka, an 80 meters high volcanic cone that is supposed to be quite photogenic. 

We saw a small hill that looked like a overturned bowl of rice with a small depression on its top, located on the rigth side of the highway. We found a safe place to park our car by the side of the road (Google Maps location here).

With Komezuka in the background.

Yomezuka is said to have been formed by an eruption about 3,300 years ago. The depression at its top is actually the crater of the volcano.

We stopped once more at a spot further down highway 111 to view Yomezuka from another angle. In autumn, the Japanese pampa grass swaying in the wind made the view more scenic.

The mountains in the background is the rim of the Aso caldera. Japanese pampa grass is in the foreground during autumn.

We parked our car at a free car park (location here) next to an observation deck. This lookout point offers a good view of Mount Aso’s mountains, the grassland called Kusasenrigahama and the large parking area outside the Aso Volcano Museum.

Signboard explaining the landscape in front of us at the observation deck.

The wind was quite strong here. Our hiking jackets kept us warm and comfortable while we enjoyed the views.

We saw Nakadake, the active volcano in Mount Aso, spewing white clouds of steam and gas. I took some time-lapse videos of the gases and steam emitting from Nakadake and the clouds above it.

Time-lapse vide of the gases and steam emitting from Nakadake.

View of the general Mount Aso area with the parking area, the grassland called Kusasenrigahama and Nakadake volcano in the back.

Kusasenrigahama (“Grassland of a Thousand Miles” ) is the dormant floor of an ancient volcanic crater. It is quite vast and ponds could be seen on it.  Behind the grassland is Mount Eboshidake.

Large pond on the grassland of Kusasenrigahama with the hiking trail to the top of Mount Eboshisake behind. 

There is another observation deck to our left but we did not go there. Instead, we took a short walk down to the Aso Volcano Museum.

Trail leading down from the observation deck to the Aso Volcano Museum. 

The best way to enjoy a visit to Mount Aso is to drive up to the edge of Mount Nakadake and view the crater within. This could be done of the eruption alert level is low. I was checking the website https://www.aso-volcano.jp on a regular basis on this day.

The good news was that the alert level was low, so the toll road up to Nakadake crater was opened. The bad news was that the wind direction was blowing gases in the wrong direction. Most areas were restricted due to gas emissions. Visitors could only view the crater from the visitor center, not from the edge of the crater. Hence, we decided not to go up to the crater.

Our Plan B, if we could not drive up to the Nakadake crater, was to do a 2 hour loop hike up and down Eboshidake. The weather was not looking good and we could see storm clouds swirling on top of Mount Eboshidake. So Plan B was aborted too.

Mount Eboshidake.

Plan C was to chill at a cafe and take a walk around Kusasenrigahama. We had coffee at the Kusasenri Coffee Roastery. The drip coffee was very good. We also bought some Kumamoto souvenirs from the shop next to the cafe.

We crossed the road and entered into the Kusasenrigahama grassland. The weather seems to be slightly better compared to when we arrived.

We hiked up a small knoll on our left to get a closer view of Nakadake volcano. Although the eruption alert level was 1, there were quite a lot of gases being emitted from the crater. 

Viewing the volcanic cloud escaping from the crater of Nakadake.

A sightseeing helicopter flying over the crater.

Smoking Nakadake on this day.

Taking more time lapse photos of the volcanic clouds.

After we had enough of Nakedake, we went to see the horses at Kusasenrigahama. Visitors to Mount Aso could ride horses from the operators located on the vast grassland. Business is not too bad. We saw many visitors riding horses around the grassy plains.

View of the knoll from Kusasenrigahama.

Horse riders are led by the handlers round a set course.

 

We spend some time to take photos of the horses. They are bigger than I expected and so well groomed.

A row of horses waiting for riders.

Break time for this horse.

Almost mirror image?

It was about noon time when we left Mount Aso. The plan for the rest of the day was to have lunch and visit a few places in southern part of Mount Aso called Minami-aso.