World Heritage Kasugayama Primeval Forest

I went hiking to Kasugayama Primeval Forest that is one of the historic monuments of ancient Nara.

As it was sacred mountain, hunting and logging have been prohibited and it has been protected for a long time.

But in 16^th century, one of the great Japanese warlords Hideyoshi Toyotomi planted some trees. So it is partly artificial forest.

the nature trail south entrance

This forest is 250 hectares in the area and contained more than 800 kinds of plants and many kinds of animals.

Beautiful deep green, light falling onto us through the trees and nice breeze in the forest are beyond my description. And we enjoyed comfortable hiking so much.

And one more good thing is that it is not so congested and it was so quiet around us all the time. What we heard was song of birds, sound of running water and swaying trees. They provided us with a forest tranquility.

This hiking was a very nice experience for me. I strongly recommend visiting this forest.

Total distance is about 10km from the nature trail south entrance to north entrance.

There is a small water fall and the top of Mt. Wakakusayama on the way. This is nice course.

The course is rather flat. So anyone can enjoy the hiking with ease. It takes about 3 to 3.5 hours.

There are also many maple trees. So, I really want to go back there in November. We must enjoy another beautiful view.

This is a trail map. Unfortunately it is written in only Japanese...

*Access to the nature trail south entrance
(1)On foot:

approx. 30 mins walk from Kintetsu Nara station

approx. 45 mins walk from JR Nara station 

(2)By bus
Take Nara Kotsu city loop line outer circle bus from
JR Nara or Kintestu Nara station, get off at Wariishi-cho,
make a right at Takabatake crossing point and walk to the east for aprox. 15mins.