Shimokita Peninsula adventure (again)...this time with a logging road

Happy Columbus Day! We celebrated by exploring a couple new places and revisiting a couple places we'd been to previously. Not sure this was Keenan's idea of a great way to spend a day off, but we didn't really go anywhere over the weekend so I convinced him to do this.

About 260km (162miles) round trip.
I think we left a little before 10:00am
and were home by about 3:45pm

Had noticed this sign several times and was finally prepared to take a picture. Turn right to get to "1th Anchorage".

First stop was a scenic overlook of Lake Usori where Osorezan (Gates of Hell) are located.

I'm sure he was checking football scores...

Stop 2 was Mt. Kamabuse where there is a lookout tower and also a trail to hike up to a higher viewpoint. We hiked up the hill this time. The leaves were changing colors and it was beautiful. Could also see the entire eastern part of the Shimokita Peninsula or "the hatchet" and Japan's northern island, Hakkaido.

We hiked up to the top of this hill.

Hard to see in this picture but we were able to see Hakkaido,
which is only possible on very clear days!

Here's the east part of "the hatchet" the left side of the picture is
Cape Shiriya where the wild horses are (see that post here)

Shrine on top of Mt. Kamabuse

I think this is saying we started at 420m and climbed to 879m?
Or maybe the hike is 420m?

 Next stop was a quick one near Osorezan. We didn't go into the temple grounds since we had already done that (click here for that post).

From Osorezan we continued north toward Yagen Valley.

We continued driving and the road changed from paved to gravel, then got narrower, then became what we're pretty sure was just a one lane logging road. At one point we were lucky there was a flat area to pull over and let a logging truck go by, and then we decided we should probably turn around! Unfortunately I forgot to take any pictures once the road got really remote...maybe next time!

Hmmm, there's a new sign...

Took a little turn off the "logging" road and found this paved bridge and next to it was an old railroad bridge.

This is a school bus! I know lots of little girls (one in particular!) that would LOVE to go to school in this. We just happened to see it parked so I had to get a shot of it!