Tag Archives: kamchatka

Route 264 and the Valley of Geysers and Uzon caldera – done.

Next up on our Kamchatka-2024 summer vacation – Maly (Little) Semyachik – one of the three Semyachik-family volcanoes (the other two being Bolshoi (Big) Semyachik and Tsentralny (Central) Semyachik. So – why Maly, if it’s the little one? Actually, little or no – Maly is still an oh-my-grandiose-and-gorgeous volcano. See for yourself! ->

Inside its oval-shaped crater there sits that there beautiful lake, which measures around 800×1000 meters. I’d have described the lake just now as bright-turquoise colored – if it stayed bright turquoise all the time, but it doesn’t. Depending on (i) the particular acidity of its water fluid at a particular point in time, and (ii) how much light there is (in turn dependent on the time of day, the season of the year, and the weather) at that same particular point in time, it changes color: a chameleon lake! ->

Read on…

You’ve had my report on our six-day Uzon trek, but I hardly told you anything about where we ended up on the last day of the trek – the Valley of Geysers. Now, with a bit more time on my hands, I can collect up my thoughts and impressions thereupon, and share them with you at a gentler, more meditative tempo…

First – a few photos. Bubbling, hissing, spurting, steaming, pouring – all present and correct, sir:

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Onward – along Route 264. Ahead lie difficulties and hardships, raptures and amazements, volcanisms and bubbling-springisms. In short, what we were here for – what we love!…

And it all started here:

This is the estuary of the Semyachik river – a few kilometers from the tiny settlement of Zhupanovo (so tiny it’s not even on the Google map: somewhere here; oh – it is on Yandex Maps though) on the Pacific coast:

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Forty kilometers to the south of Kronotsky there are two “cult” Kamchatkan volcanisms: (i) the Uzon volcanic caldera… ->

…and the famous Valley of Geysers ->

This year, instead of choppering in, looking about for a bit, then choppering off again, we decided to do a multi-day trek along the old Soviet Route No. 264…

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Next up, one of the most beautiful volcanoes in the world, and probably the most refined of the peninsula – Kronotsky ->

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It was farewell to what is possibly the world’s remotest hotel complex, and off we choppered south to our next Kamchatkan volcanic wonder – Kizimen (pronounced KizEEmen). And here she is – the view from the south:

And from the north ->

What differentiates this particular volcano of Kamchatka from others are the two lakes at its foot set among wonderfully “designer” landscapes. There’s also the amazing view of nearby Kronotsky volcano – here on the horizon to the right, upon which you can meditate for an eternity.

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At the foot of Kizimen volcano in Kamchatka – literally in the middle of nowhere, with no roads or settlements for 70 kilometers – today there happens to be… a five-star tourism base (here)! ->

What? The lap of luxury – out here?! Pretty much. For there’s hot springs, a marvelous view of Kizimen, digital detox (at least – partially; more on this below), delicious food, hunting & fishing, mosquitos, bears and assorted other pamperings to please office plankton. They’ve even done something to prevent insects from coming near the complex!

Read on: Kamchatka-2024 – Part 4: Could this be the world’s remotest hotel?

Hi folks,

After the brief Chinese interlude (the three intro-posts to our China-2024 trip), it’s time to move (figuratively) directly northeast back to… Kamchatka!

Without a doubt, one of the jewels in the crown of the Klyuchevsky group of volcanoes is Tolbachik. We’d already marveled at the northern volcanic trio (Klyuchevskaya Sopka, Kamen and Bezymianny) of the group, and also the canyon of the Studyonaya river. Now it was time for the mentioned jewel; actually – jewels. For Tolbachik is actually two volcanoes – the long-dormant Ostry (sharp) Tolbachik, and the rather active Plosky (flat) Tolbachik…

The view from the north:

And here’s the view of practically the whole Klyuchevsky group from up in a helicopter. The pointed-cone volcano in the foreground is Ostry (remember – sharp) Tolbachik; the flat-topped on next to it – you guessed it: Plosky (flat) Tolbachik ->

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Having been duly impressed by the monumentality of the Klyuchevsky volcano group – it was time to head further south. And there’s so much more jaw-dropping awesomeness ahead that you’d better… tie your jaws together now! :)…

Actually, we didn’t have far to walk fly – just around 10km southwest of the Klyuchevsky group (from here, to be precise) is the picturesque canyon of the Studyonaya River, from the mouth of which there’s a contemplative view of Tolbachik:

Down the millennia the river’s cut some interesting chasms/crevasses/canyons out of the lava fields here – with vertical walls some 10-20 meters high. There are a few of these corridors (well – at least two), and though not very long (100-200 meters each), they’re still very striking:

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Sorry for taking so long to post about my Kamchatka 2024 trip! My business travel schedule has been crazy lately. Almost immediately after Kamchatka (I didn’t even have time to catch my breath!) I set off for a business tour of Colombia, followed by Chile and China, and now I’m at Kazan Digital Week. Sometimes my travels can really throw me around like a rag doll.

But I haven’t forgotten about Kamchatka 2024! I’ve sorted and processed my photos, and had my fellow travelers do the same :). Now I’m as ready as I’ll ever be to share how it went.

Let’s start in the north with the Klyuchevsky group of volcanos. It comprises 14 volcanoes, but the big three are Bezymianny, Kamen, and Klyuchevskaya Sopka. Here they are all together; Bezymianny is the smoking one. A little further back is the sharp cone of Kamen, and flanking it is Klyuchevskaya Sopka.

Read on…