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The Valley of Geysers is fantastically beautifula place lost in the hard-to-reach gorges of the Kronotsky state biosphere reserve in Kamchatka. Territorially, the natural park is 180 kilometers north-east of the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky among the numerous volcanoes that stretch along the eastern coast of the peninsula. One of the largest geyser fields in the world and the only one on the territory of Eurasia is a deep canyon with a length of about eight kilometers, along which the Geysernaya River flows. And although there are dozens of similar canyons in Kamchatka, this place differs from the others in the highest concentration of hydrothermal sources. For six kilometers from the mouth of the river, 40 geysers are concentrated, which are conditionally divided into nine sections. For tourism, the central part of the Valley of Geysers is open, namely the fifth, sixth and seventh thermal plots. Here in a small space, hot lakes, geysers, mud boilers and volcanoes, steam jets and bubbling springs are very close together.

History of the discovery of the Valley of Geysers

The Valley of Geysers was opened on July 25, 1941employee of the Kronotsky Reserve Tatyana Ustinova and conductor Anisifor Krupenin during a survey of a previously unknown tributary of the Shumnaya River. This event was preceded by the discovery of the first geyser (Pervenets) in April of the same year. Surprisingly, up to this time there has been no mention of the existence of a geyser field in any report of numerous research groups, nor in the legends of the indigenous inhabitants of the local Itelmen.

Tourism in the Valley of Geysers

The first tourist excursions to the Valley of Geysersbegan to be realized from the end of 50th years of the last century. The excitement around the new miracle of nature has led to an unprecedented influx of tourists. Numerous travelers sought to take with them a piece of beauty of these places, sorting out for souvenirs geyserite - a mineral formed around geysers. Ignorance and consumer attitude of people almost led to a deterioration of the ecological situation. The Valley of Geysers was completely closed to "wild" tourism in 1967, after ten years in the nature park tourism was banned altogether. Only in 1993, after creating the necessary infrastructure, the valley was reopened for visits.

Ecological catastrophy

For the whole history of observations, the Valley of Geysers twicewas threatened with destruction. In October 1981, the Kamchatka Peninsula was attacked by the typhoon "Elsa", which brought with it heavy rains. Precipitation caused a rise in the water level in the Geysernaya River, thereby provoking the formation of mudflows that led to the destruction of more than 20 geysers. The second catastrophe occurred quite recently - in 2007. Powerful mudslides fell on the valley, hiding under a heavy load of debris and mud many sources, and in place of the field formed a dam. However, in 2013 there was a miracle - a landslide caused by heavy rainfall, destroyed a natural dam, thus freeing many geysers. The valley was reborn. And, according to experts from the Kronotsky Reserve, the number of sources has increased.