Shikotsu-Toya National Park

Mountains, forests, caldera lakes, hot-spring resorts, and volcanoes are virtually in Sapporo's backyard. Less than an hour from Sapporo, Route 230 passes the large hot-spring village Jozankei, then the mountains close in, the road climbs to Nakayama Pass at 2,742 feet. On a clear day the view from the top is classic Hokkaido—farmland with the stately Mount Yotei in its midst, and on the horizon to the south Lake Toya's volcanic crater and Noboribetsu hot springs, where the earth steams, rumbles, and erupts.