Nasushiobara city publishes a flower and foliage calendar, and it puts the Shiobara valley around Chigo-ga-fuchi at late October to mid-November. The calendar is worth reading in full, because it lists ten places inside one city and gives each of them a different fortnight.

That spread is the useful fact here. The Nichien Momiji Line and the Shiona Skyline start in mid-October, high up. The Kurenai suspension bridge and the Momijidani bridge do not turn until November. The colour comes down the mountain in order, so a week that is too early for one place is right for another twenty minutes away. Visitors who plan around a single date tend to miss; visitors who arrive with the list in hand rarely do.

The valley itself is cut by the Hoki river and followed the whole way by Route 400, which means the gorge can be seen from a car window without stopping. It is twenty minutes from the Nishinasuno-Shiobara interchange, and Chigo-ga-fuchi sits about midway along it.

Shiobara is a hot spring town of some age, strung along the river rather than gathered in a square, and the walking paths run between the bathhouses and the water. An afternoon covers the road and one of the shorter trails.