Shiretoko!

Shiretoko National Park, July 21st, 2007

This whole trip to Hokkaido was contrived out of some fantastic reviews I heard about Shiretoko National Park. It’s described as "an outstanding example of the interaction of marine and terrestrial ecosystems as well as extraordinary ecosystem productivity" and "globally important for threatened seabirds and migratory birds, and a number of salmonid species." Can you go wrong!?! Yes, it’s true. I'm a sucker for any UNESCO world heritage site.

Imagine my delight when I woke this morning to the ! Extraordinary salmonid species here I come! As I was getting ready to set off, a group of (motorcycle) ‘riders’ also staying at the ‘rider house’ invited me to go up to the park with them.

As it turns out for most of the park you can’t enter with your own vehicles. We parked the Harleys at the gift shop and got on the park bus. The bears by the side of the road made me glad (for once) that I wasn’t on my bike. They track them and some of the trails were closed but we did trek up this waterfall, which is fed by a hot spring and snowmelt and not by the rain. Well, at least not today. It was nothing less than extraordinary!