Beautiful hike on another part of the Futagoyama (二子山) Trail

I have posted about the Futagoyama trail before... here. That time I started near the Zushi entrance to the Expressway. You can also catch this trail from near the JR Higashi-Zushi Station.

These pictures today are from the trail head near the Shinzushi Station. A big thank you to Tiffany for telling me about this way of getting onto the trail!
From the Shinzushi station, head out the exit nearest the end of the train line. That's the side opposite the escalator. Follow that road past the bus station and take the first left at the major road. Follow that road through the tunnel. Take your first left... there's a covered bus stop or gazebo. The road is a really narrow two-way road so be careful!

Stay on that road until you see the shrine in the picture above. The road you are on will make a "Y" shortly after that. Follow it to the right. There is a major road with a traffic signal. Cross that road. There is a business on the right. Immediately after it, take a right. It's a small little road, but stay on it as it curves by a creek (maybe a very small river) and crosses it.

Stay on the road by the wall pictured below. It will curve around that building and kind of meander through a housing area.

Keep going!!! It's 1.82 miles from Shinzushi Station to the trail head!Eventually, after stopping to double (triple?) check these directions, you will come to the gate above. This is the Futagoyama (二子山) trail head.
This early part of the trail was quite crowded with several scouting groups and many bird watchers, but it thinned out once the trail thinned out.

One of three or four big groups we came across in the beginning of our hike.

There were three spots along the first part of the trail with bird watchers. They had huge lenses and were sitting patiently with their eyes to the sky. There were also many kids with nets hunting for bugs.

I wish my photography skills could do this area justice, but the picture above was a gorgeous area! That tent was dwarfed by a beautiful and really high rock cliff. You can also see how you have to traverse this shallow creek bed and even hike in part of it. For this reason, I don't think this trail would be suitable after a rain. This place, where the tent is, is where the big trail ends and the more difficult part of the Futagoyama trail begins. It is a good place to turn around if you want to return to Shinzushi.

The arrow pointing to the left is where we came from. The arrow pointing to the right and up the hill is the trail to to top of Mt. Futago. That trail is mostly a gravel road from shortly after that. The top sign is the way we went today. You can take it to Yokosuka if you wish. You can also take it to Numama. Today we took it to Keikyu Taura Station. To get to that Taura Station or JR Taura station, you can follow the signs to Numama and eventually 16.

This colorful little bug, and others like him, were hopping around on the trail. This one just seemed to want me to take it's picture.

This dog was very funny. Do you see those water bottles by him? I see them everywhere and I recently found out what they are for. I guess when there are several lined up alongside walls, it is to keep cats away. When you just see one on the corner, it is for you to use to rinse where your dog has urinated. That's the story I heard at least.