A day trip from Kyoto, we headed to the Fushimi Inari shrine and the hike up Inari mountain.  There are over 10,000 orange Torii ( gates ) along the trail which takes about 2 hours to hike.

Here is the not-to-scale map.  Within 15 minutes we appeared to be half-way up the mountain.  Getting to the top took much longer than expected.

Along the way, there are numerous shrines where people stopped and prayed, leaving miniature torii.

The path is lined with gates and lit the entire way.

It’s also very popular, although it was much busier near the bottom.

Here is one of the shrines with a fox fountain.

The gates are a mixture of old and new.

This is the shrine at the top of the mountain.

Here we are finally at the top.  It’s hard to read, but the plaque says, “Top of the mountain”

In amongst the trees, the path got dark quickly but there were lights on the entire way.  The trail is open 24 hours a day and we passed people heading up, even at night.

As we came back down the mountain, we had an incredible view of Kyoto below.

This is the shrine at the bottom, as we left to get on the train and head home.