Pristine wilderness of worldwide significance

     Local people with the goal of conserving the sable population created this protected area over 120 years ago. As both one of Russia's largest and oldest preserves, Kronotsky is a multi-faceted jewel covering 1,007,134 hectares of land and the 3-mile zone of 152 miles of shoreline. The preserve's mountains, glaciers, active and extinct volcanoes, rivers, lakes, islands, beaches, and rugged shoreline give the area a variety of ecosystems and remarkable biodiversity. The protected area abounds with wildlife, marine or terrestrial, to watch and photograph. The preserve plays a major role in preservation of Kamchatka's brown bears as it is home to about 750 bruins. Additionally over 2000 of Kamchatka's last wild reindeer live in the territory, along with Steller Sea Eagles, and Aleutian Terns.

     The preserve isn't a national park and has a more limited mandate for public use than parks and reserves. The special status of the preserve places the wilderness value, its preservation, and research at the highest priority, above public use. The preserve has designated recreation zones allowing limited human use.

     Hiking routes open to backpackers concentrate in the area from the Valley of Geysers to Uzon. A preserve inspector must accompany all groups. His role is to protect the preserve from damage and also to guard the safety of the visitors, as there are many bears.

     Valley of Geysers

     Nestled in a pocket of the Kronotsky Preserve is the Valley of Geysers. This 8-km long valley discovered by a geologist in 1941 was named for its over 40 geysers, many hot springs, boiling mud pots, steam vents, and warm rivers. The largest geyser, Velikan, shoots boiling water to 30 meters and steam to 300 meters. The valley is a beautiful landscape of multi-colored mineralized rock faces, against verdant green and abundant wildflowers. The biodiversity of the valley intertwines the area's flora, fauna, and geology with adaptations to the unusually warm ground and mineral contents of the soil and water. Here spring greens sprout early, providing nutrients for the first bears emerging from winter dens.

     Uzon Caldera

     Gigantic volcanism 40,000 years ago formed this 5.6 mile x 7.5 mile caldera.    Imagine a giant volcanic bed with steaming warm lakes teeming with geothermal activity. Uzon has hot springs, gurgling mud pots, and land painted with an amazing array of colors, and textures from the minerals deposited in this geothermal wonderland.  In the caldera alone are over 1000 hot springs of different sizes and forms, bubbling up at temperatures from 45 to 98 degrees C.