Climbing Mount Iwawaki

What?
Mount Iwawaki (岩湧山) is an almost 897 meters high mountain at the border of Osaka (大阪府) and Wakayama (和歌山県) prefectures.
Where?
From Shin-Imamiya Station (新今宮駅) in Osaka you can take the Nankai train to Kawachinagano Station (河内長野駅). From there it's a half hour bus ride to Takihata Dam which is the starting point of most of the trails. At the end of the course you take the same Nankai train from Kimitoge Station (紀見峠駅).
URL
Kawachinagano Tourism

There are several walking trails, but we took the 11.5km hike that starts at the Takihata Dam and ends at the Kimitoge station in Hashimoto village.
To get to the start of the trail we took the Nankai line from Namba and got off at Kawachinagano. From there a bus took us to the dam, where a very narrow climb at the backside of a public toilet marked the start of the climb.

The climb is 4km long and takes a little less than 2 hours. The climb is at moments steep but the path is clear which makes the trail of intermediate level. Just before arriving at the top there is a magnificent view of the final stairs when leaving the dense forest. Once these last steps are climbed the reward is an impressive view of the Osaka area.

The descent started strangely enough with another climb, but after that got fairly easy. On the way though the path turned into flights of staircases and nature made trenches. While quite adventurous, the trail never exceeds the intermediate level making it an enjoyable hike for everyone with a basic condition.
The path eventually merges with the flow of a river which leads into a remote area of Hashimoto village where the Kimitoge station is just a few hundred meters away.