Shikotsu-Tōya National Park

Template:Short description Template:Infobox Protected area

Template:Nihongo is a national park in the western part of the island of Hokkaidō, Japan. Named after the volcanic caldera lakes of Lake Shikotsu and Lake Tōya, it has a total area of 993.02 square kilometers. The popular hot spring resorts of Noboribetsu south of the lake and Jozankei North of the lake are also within the park.

Geography

Shikotsu-Tōya National Park is located near Sapporo in the southwestern corner of Hokkaido.<ref name="travel">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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.<ref name="jme">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The area around Template:Nihongo is encircled by active volcanoes such as Template:Nihongo (1,041 m), and Template:Nihongo (1,320 m ).

There is also an area around Template:Nihongo, Template:Nihongo, and Template:Nihongo and an area around the hot springs of Template:Nihongo, Template:Nihongo, and Template:Nihongo considered separate areas by others .Template:Cn

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.<ref name="guide">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Flora and fauna

The park contains mixed forests of Ezo spruce, Sakhalin fir, Mongolian oak, Japanese elm, Siberian dwarf pines and alpine plants such as Labrador tea and blue mountainheath. Animals include brown alpine hares, Hokkaido squirrels and Japanese deer, Japanese scops owl, black woodpecker, spotbill ducks and tufted ducks,<ref name="flora">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> as well as Yezo sika deer and Ezo red fox.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

National park installation

The area became a national park on May 16, 1949.<ref name="jme" /> It has three visitor centers: Lake Shikotsu Visitor Center, Toya Takarada Nature Experience House and Toyako Visitor Center and Volcano Science Museum.<ref name="travel"/>

Travel

It can be reached via Chitose, Hokkaido city airport and via shinkansen from Tokyo.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> As of 2024, there are buses from Shin-Chitose Airport and Chitose Station to Shikotsuko Kohan.<ref name="guide" />