小鹿野・Ogano

May 4th

It’s Golden Week and we decided to head out early to try and beat the crowds. It wasn’t too bad driving to Ogano and there were very few other hikers about. We parked at the shrine as recommended by other blogs but it seems they don’t like you to park there for a long time. There’s no where else though so I’m not sure what else you could do. At least park in the further car park rather than right by the shrine.

The trail starts in the temple grounds. You walk up all the steps, then follow the path round. It’s steep and narrow but passable. You can stop off and pay your respects to various little shrines along the way. Eventually you pop out onto a hiking course and follow that up to a ridge with stunning views. You can follow the ridge along to see a statue but you have to come back the same way to follow the set course.

It is a long, difficult trail. We lost our way many times though thankfully were quick to realise so we could double back. There are also a lot of places where you have to pull yourself up or let yourself down sheer rock using the handily placed chains so if you’re scared of heights and/or not good with sheer drops I don’t recommend this course. That said, we both loved it. It wasn’t too difficult and there was always a chain or rope where the going got really difficult. There were several places where we thought ‘surely this can’t be right’ but it invariably was. Narrow paths, sheer drops, steep rock faces; you have been warned! If you want an adventure rather than a straight hike then this is the course for you. Make sure you check the blog linked to this post to see photos of the course, and make sure you have some kind of GPS.

On the map the route back looks equal to that going but once you get down to the road it’s very quick and a nice cool down before arriving back at the car. The road back was jammed with holiday traffic but it was still worth the visit. A very enjoyable if tiring day.