The Shiretoko Cross-Island Highway crosses the Shiretoko World Heritage Site, and this pass, located on the border between Rausu and Shari, offers a beautiful, expansive landscape. Its natural environment is particularly harsh even for Hokkaido, and the road is closed during the winter (November to April of the following year) due to several meters of snowfall. The road usually reopens before Golden Week, but for one day before the opening, a special event called the Shiretoko Snow Wall Walk is held, where you can walk along the roadway sandwiched between high walls of snow.

If you take a leisurely drive along the winding roads during the snow-free season, you can enjoy beautiful mountains and primeval forests of trees such as Mizunara oak and Todo fir, and on clear days you can even see all the way to Kunashiri Island. If you're lucky, you might even spot some of the wildlife that inhabits this World Heritage Site. Be sure to watch out for brown bears.