"Kamchatka, Land ..." a Kamchatskaya Oblast' Travel Page by XenoHumph

If you like complete wilderness, untamed and pristine, if you like volcanoes and geysers, if you like big mountains and huge rivers where bears fish salmon, if you like sub-arctic climates,... well then Kamchatka is made for you!

Kamchatka is on the "ring of fire" around the Pacific ocean, which describes the large amount of active volcanoes from the Andes and NE USA to Japan and Indonesia.

I went to Kamchatka in 1995 as part of a geology field trip following a meeting in Vladivostok. Everything was organized for the group, lodging, food and visits of geological features. If you want to go too, the best is probably an organized tour. It is very expensive, however (count several thousand dollars per person)!

I only went in the Southeasternmost part of the peninsula, where most active volcanoes are located. Our trip could be divided in 2 parts: 1) the Mudnovsly-Gorely region (South of Petropavlovsk, the capital of Kamchatka), and 2) Uzon Caldera and geyser valley (North of Petropavlovsk).

Kamchatka is in the middle of nowhere, at the end of the Earth, you know where the Earth stops and you fall in the void?

Kamchatka is a huge peninsula in the Northern Pacific Ocean. It is a region of Russia. It is located in Eastern Siberia making it closer to Alaska than to Moscow!

Kamchatka was forbidden to tourists up to the early 1990ies because of its strategic position close to Alaska, and its big military base.

Sorry, the map is in french, but you'll figure it out....

See my general tips for a detailed map.