Kamchatka

The Kamchatka Peninsula, thrusting into the Pacific at the far eastern edge of Russia, is one of the world's last great volcanic wildernesses, a land of fire and ice. Dozens of volcanoes, many still active, rise in perfect cones above glaciers, tundra and forest, and the peninsula holds famous geysers and steaming valleys, boiling springs and mud pots. Its rivers run thick with salmon, drawing one of the densest populations of brown bears on earth, along with sea eagles and, offshore, whales. Inscribed by UNESCO as the Volcanoes of Kamchatka, it is a raw, remote and spectacular realm at the very end of the continent.

History

Before the Russians came, the peninsula was home to Chukotko-Kamchatkan peoples, the Itelmen, Koryak and Alyutor, and its southern tip was the northern edge of Ainu settlement. Russians reached it overland from the north: reports of a Kamchatka River came from about 1667, in 1697-1699 Vladimir Atlasov explored nearly the whole peninsula and built an ostrog at Verkhny-Kamchatsk, Nizhne-Kamchatsk was founded in 1700 and Bolsheretsk in 1703, and decades of mutinies and wars with the native peoples followed, with no significant resistance after 1756. A smallpox epidemic in 1768-1769 devastated the native population, and the Itelmen, once 12,000 to 25,000, numbered about 2,500 in 1773 and 1,900 in 1820; today the volcanoes of Kamchatka are a World Heritage Site (Wikipedia, Kamchatka Peninsula).

What's there

• The volcanoes - the dozens of smoking active volcanic cones.
• The Valley of Geysers - the famous steaming geyser field.
• The brown bears - the dense bear population on the salmon rivers.
• The wild tundra - the pristine forest, glaciers and coastline.

When to go

July to September is the short, mild window for hiking, wildlife-watching and helicopter tours to the geysers and volcanoes, when the tundra is green and bears are active on the rivers; the rest of the year is deep, severe winter. The brief summer is when the wilderness fully opens up.

Good to know

Kamchatka is extremely remote and expensive to reach, with much of its finest scenery, such as the Valley of Geysers, accessible only by costly helicopter, and the wilderness demands proper guides and preparation. As one of the last great volcanic wildernesses on earth, a UNESCO-listed land of fire, geysers and bears, though, it is an extraordinary natural spectacle.

Nearby

Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and the surrounding volcanoes and coast are the base.

Key facts