Kamchatka Lake on the map. Kuril Lake - Kamchatka. Kukhtiny Bati, Utashud and Cape Lopatka

Kuril Lake is considered the largest spawning ground for sockeye salmon in Eurasia. The population size of this fish can reach 6 million individuals. Spawning lasts a long time - from May to October.

Spawning is important for the ecosystem of this region and the entire peninsula. The registration of incoming fish and monitoring of offspring is carried out by the TINRO observation station. It is located on the west coast and has been operating for a long time.

As soon as the fry hatch from the eggs, they live in the lake for some time and then go into the waters of the Pacific Ocean. Years later, they return to the spawning ground to hatch new offspring.

You need to know that sockeye salmon looks different in fresh water and in salt water. The color of the fish during the mating season changes to bright red instead of silver. At this time, males even grow jaws similar to a bird’s beak.

If you believe approximate calculations, then in 1 year up to 10 million fish rise to the Kuril Lake, in rare years the figure reaches 20 million. These are big numbers, indicating the largest sockeye salmon migrations in all of Asia.

At the moment, a large number of fishing enterprises are located along the banks of the river. Ozernoy and along the coast of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. Technology has developed so much that if you want, you can catch all the fish. Of course, in order to maintain the natural balance in the ecosystem, enterprises adhere to regulations. There are certain days when fish pass without obstacles, and there are days for fishing. This approach has allowed the sockeye salmon population to recover in recent decades.

It takes sockeye salmon about 4 days to reach their destination and lay eggs. The fish moves along the Ozernaya River unevenly and often lingers in depressions along the way. The peak of migration occurs from mid-July to early September.

Of course, in addition to sockeye salmon, there are other types of fish here: chum salmon, pink salmon, chinook salmon, and char.

In addition to large migrations of fish, tourists are attracted here by bears who don’t mind going “fishing”. According to rough estimates, by August about 250 brown bears come to the shore of the lake. They are under the protection of the reserve. Bears feed on fatty salmon and catch river otters and foxes. Browns simply love fishing!

Protection from the reserve workers and the abundance of food affect the behavior of brown bears. They relax more and play with each other. Therefore, photographers from all over the world often come here to take beautiful photos of dancing and kind bears. Such photographs participate in competitions and win prizes.

It’s also impossible to live without birds on Kuril Lake. The largest colony of slaty gulls lives here. In total more than 1500 pairs. In winter, large predators also come here to hunt: golden eagles, white-tailed eagles, and Steller's sea eagles. Their greatest concentration is observed in the area between the Etamanka and Khakytsyn rivers, on the Ozernaya River.

About 2,000 wild ducks and hundreds of whooper swans spend almost the entire winter on the water. The diet of birds necessarily includes sockeye salmon and its caviar. There are no vegetarians here.

Kuril Lake is visited by birds from the passerine family, mainly during autumn migrations. This is explained by the fact that Kuril Lake is the optimal place to relax before leaving the Kamchatka Peninsula. There are simply no more southern places with good parking conditions.

Kuril Lake is the second largest freshwater lake on the Kamchatka Peninsula. The picturesque lake is located in the basin of one of the extinct volcanoes on the territory of the South Kamchatka Nature Reserve, which has been included in the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1996. The total area of ​​the lake is about 77 sq. km, with a maximum depth of 316 m and an average depth of 195 m.

Kuril Lake was formed about 8 thousand years ago as a result of a strong eruption and subsequent attenuation of the volcano. It is surrounded by unique natural objects - hot thermal springs, accumulations of pumice. The lake surface is interrupted by islands of volcanic origin - Heart of Alaid, Chayachy and Nizkiy, as well as the amazing Saman archipelago.

Not far from the lake you can see the active Ilyinsky volcano, which has a perfectly regular shape. Lava flows descend directly into Kuril Lake, thereby forming several picturesque bays.

Every year, one of the largest schools of sockeye salmon in Eurasia enters the lake to spawn; the number of individuals varies from 1.5 to 4 million. Sockeye salmon spawning begins in July and ends in March, which attracts many tourists and fishing enthusiasts.

A large number of fish leads to the appearance of brown bears on the lake shores. Tourists can watch bears fishing from a specially erected observation tower located in the lake area. In these places you can see up to 20 bears at a time. The common fox and river otter also readily feed on salmon.

In addition, exciting excursions around Kuril Lake on a motor boat are organized for tourists, during which you can watch the salmon run and visit places where bird colonies live.

Lake Kurilskoye is located in the extreme south of Kamchatka. It is located on wild rocky shores with impenetrable bushes.

Lake Kurilskoe is the second largest (after Kronotsky) of the freshwater lakes in Kamchatka. The lake basin is a volcanotectonic depression 12.5 km long and 8 km wide, formed 8300–8400 years ago as a result of a powerful eruption and subsequent subsidence of the earth's crust.

The lake is located at 104 m above sea level. Its maximum depth is 316 m, the average is 195 m. Since the coastal marine areas of the reserve are shallow (isobaths within 50 m), the bottom of the lake relative to the level of the world ocean is located much lower than in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk and the Pacific Ocean.

On the lake there are islands made of lava: Chayachy, Nizkiy, Heart of Alaid and the Samang archipelago. They are domes, the relative height of which is 200–300 m.

Kuril Lake gives rise to the Ozernaya River. The largest rivers flowing into the lake are Khakytsyn (24 km) and Etamynk (18 km).

In historical times, the lake was well inhabited by the Aborigines. The largest Neolithic settlement-fortress discovered at Cape Siyushk. The aboriginal population was influenced by the Ainu culture. During archaeological work, Ainu ceramics and Japanese bronze coins were found.

Many of the names used for natural objects in the Kuril Lake area are associated with legends recorded by S.P. Krasheninnikov:
“Once upon a time, on the site of the lake, there stood a high mountain, so high that it blocked the sun for the neighboring mountains, thereby causing their indignation and causing frequent quarrels. Finally, they got so tired of them that “High Mountain” rose and went into the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, and in its place a lake formed, in which she left her heart. Following the trail left by the mountain, the Ozernaya River flowed to the sea.”

The heart of Alaid is now called a rocky island in the southern part of the island, very similar in shape to a heart.

4 km from the source of the river, on the right side of its valley, there is a uniquely beautiful pumice outcrop called “Kutkhiny Baty”.

About them S.P. Krasheninnikov writes like this: “... 9 versts from the top of the Ozernaya River, and on which side of it is unknown, stands a whitish rocky mountain, which looks like canoes placed perpendicularly, for which reason the Cossacks call it baton stone, and the local pagans tell that the god and creator of Kamchatka Kuthu lived there for some time before his departure, in these stone shuttles or bahts he traveled across the sea and lake to fish, and upon leaving there he placed the shuttles on the declared stone, and for this they are kept in such reverence from them that they are afraid to come close to them.”

The Kuril Lake region is generally characterized by the widespread development of pumice deposits. Their formation is associated with a powerful outbreak of acidic volcanism in the early Holocene. The thickness of pumice formations reaches 70–110 m.

There are hot springs on the shores of the lake. Groups of water outlets with temperatures up to 45ºС - the Kuril springs - are located at the foot of the Ilyinsky volcano on the shore of the lake in Teplaya Bay among lava blocks overgrown with birch woodland and elfin wood.

The water column is so large that with stable winter winds, as a result of mixing of water masses, the lake is not covered with ice in some years, or the ice cover is loose and fragile.

The largest herd of sockeye salmon in Eurasia spawns in Kuril Lake. The optimal number of producers ensuring expanded reproduction of the herd is estimated at 1.5–3.5 million individuals; in reality, up to 6 million producers entered the lake (1990). Sockeye salmon spawning is unusually extended: it lasts from July to March. 71% of spawning areas are in lakes, 26% in rivers and 3% in key spawning grounds. At the source of the Ozernaya River, the KamchatNIRO scientific station constantly operates.

The abundance of sockeye salmon for such a long time is the most important feature of the natural complex of the lake. At the end of summer, more than 200 brown bears gather in the lake basin; they are trusting because they are under protection South Kamchatsky reserve Here it is easier than anywhere else to observe the life of these wonderful animals. The common river otter and fox readily feed on salmon.

On the islands in the middle of the lake there is one of the largest colonies of slaty-backed gulls in fresh water bodies, numbering more than 1.5 thousand pairs.

In winter, an unparalleled concentration of large birds of prey gathers here: up to 300–700 Steller’s sea eagles, up to 100–150 white-tailed eagles, up to 50 golden eagles, cases of flights of bald eagles are known. Most of them are found on river and key spawning grounds in the Khakytsyn-Etamynka interfluve and on the Ozernaya River. Hundreds of them spend the winter on open waters whooper swans and up to 1.5–2 thousand ducks. All of them (even vegetarian species), as well as small forest birds - puffy duck, nuthatch, small spotted woodpecker - to one degree or another feed on sockeye salmon or its eggs. The winter ecosystem of Lake Kurilskoye is unique.

Finally, the lake basin is part of a fairly large area in the extreme south of the Kamchatka Peninsula, where there is a high concentration of passerine birds (especially forest birds) on autumn migrations. The fact is that this area is a pre-start stopover for passerines leaving Kamchatka through Cape Lopatka, since even further south there are no conditions for a long stopover for forest birds.

TO northeast part of the lake is adjacent to the active stratovolcano Ilyinsky with an impressively regular conical structure 1578 m high. The youngest lava flows of this volcano descend directly into the lake, forming several bays. The western shore of the lake is framed by a volcanic extrusion - the Wild Ridge ridge with a highest elevation of 1080 m. In calm, clear weather, volcanoes are reflected on the surface of the lake as if in a mirror, creating fantastically beautiful landscapes. Lake Kurilskoye is one of the most beautiful corners of Kamchatka at any time of the year.

In one of the most beautiful and untouched places in the world - in the South Kamchatka Nature Reserve - a magnificent expanse of water stretches. This Kuril Lake is one of the largest and most beautiful in the Kamchatka region.

Geographical information

Kuril Lake can be confusing with its name, because this huge volcanic formation is not a lake on the Kuril Islands, but is located in the very south of the Kamchatka Peninsula. In terms of area, Kuril Lake in Kamchatka ranks second after Kronotsky Lake and, for a freshwater lake, has impressive parameters. Its maximum depth is about 316 m with an average of about 200 m, its width in some places reaches 8 km, and the total water area is 77 square meters. m.

The volcanic origin of the Kuril Lake (the reservoir appeared several thousand years ago) is quite common for the peninsula. The rugged coastline surrounded by cliffs forms many bays and headlands, and dormant volcanoes towering above give the landscape an unusually majestic appearance. Ilyinskaya Sopka in the northeast is today the most active volcano in Kamchatka. Along with it, the Wild Ridge to the west and numerous islands on the surface of the lake remind of the turbulent history of its formation.

Heart of Alaid

A sad and beautiful legend is associated with the most picturesque and largest island of Kuril Lake, with the Heart of Alaid. Numerous mountains have always adorned this area, but among them there was one special peak, distinguished by its beauty and rising several kilometers into the air. The handsome Alaid, so tall and majestic, aroused the envy of his smaller neighbors, and they constantly complained that he was blocking the sun and taking all the water from the glacier covering his slopes. Proud Alaid could not contain his resentment and went underground with a powerful roar, and the water covered the place of his death. The mountain giant left a torn out heart as a reminder of himself...

As can be seen in the photo below of Kuril Lake, the Heart of Alaid still adorns the blue surface with a beautiful rocky island.

Unique flora and fauna

Particularly impressive is the beauty of the vegetation of the Kuril Lake, almost untouched by human activity. Outlandish ferns as tall as a man grow along the coastline; some of their species can only be seen here, on the territory of the reserve. Thickets of cedar, willow and alder on the banks provide shelter for numerous species of animals, and rocky gorges are a nesting site for a wide variety of rare birds.

The local settlements of a huge variety of birds delight ornithologists, since there are almost no opportunities left to observe them in natural conditions and to get as close as on the Kamchatka lakes anywhere in the world. Steller's sea eagles, slaty gulls, golden eagles, and white-tailed eagles willingly use the territory of the reservoir for wintering, since there is always plenty of fish here, and people are in no hurry to settle in this beautiful, but extremely turbulent region in geological terms. Thanks to its unique, virtually pristine ecosystem, Kuril Lake was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1996.

Salmon spawning

The lake is home to numerous species of phytoplankton, which creates favorable conditions for large populations of fish. When the spawning season begins, the Ozernaya River, the only one carrying its waters from the Kuril Lake to the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, is literally boiling with numerous schools of sockeye and salmon going upstream. This is an ideal place to study the behavior of salmon fish in their natural habitat.

Bear baths

On the shores of Kuril Lake there are real bear places. The territory of the reserve is a habitat for brown bears, which are attracted by a large number of fish and geothermal springs in the bays of the reservoir. Teplaya Bay has become a favorite bear bath, where otters, foxes, sables and bighorn sheep blithely live next to the well-fed bears. The inhabitants of these places are not at all afraid of humans, so you can observe them from a fairly close distance on specially equipped towers.

Attractions

Kamchatka, where Kuril Lake is located, is still undergoing geographic changes. In the area of ​​the volcanic lake, the volcanoes are of greatest interest. Having long fallen asleep and continuing their activity, they attract the most courageous tourists from all over the world to these hard-to-reach places.

Hot springs with healing mineral water in Teplaya Bay are superior in quality to the famous European thermal baths. They were formed during lava flow after the eruption, therefore they have a special mineral composition and provide a unique opportunity to plunge into the warm healing waters of the lake far from civilization. Animal lovers can sit comfortably on low towers and spend hours watching brown bears carefreely swim and fish.

Kukhtiny Bati, Utashud and Cape Lopatka

The largest deposits of volcanic pumice are concentrated in the Ozernaya River valley. An interesting place to visit is Kutkhiny Bati, where snow-white blocks of pumice are shaped like boats left to dry on the shore.

The island of Utashud is also unusual, which is a close group of three rocky islets with completely flat shores. Not far from here, among the reefs, you can see the hull of a long-sunken ship that crashed onto inaccessible rocks.

Particularly seasoned tourists can try their hand at reaching the inaccessible Cape Lopatka. Apart from geologists, meteorologists and wild bears and eagles, no one lives there. This remote point of Kamchatka is unique in its shape and resembles an exposed shoulder blade. Windswept and virtually inaccessible even to the sun's rays, this deserted and wild area creates the feeling of being on another planet.

Archaeological finds

Many historical artifacts have been found on the shores of Kuril Lake. Archaeologists have discovered places of ancient settlements and human habitation here. Why these settlements disappeared without a trace is still unknown. We can only assume that the ancient inhabitants somehow angered the local gods, and they drove the ungrateful settlers out of the rich and beautiful lands.

Excursions to Kuril Lake

Despite the significant distance from civilization, or perhaps precisely because of this factor, the territory of Kuril Lake in the South Kamchatka Nature Reserve attracts tourists. When is the best time to plan a trip to these parts?

The period for visiting Kuril Lake is very limited. For most of the year, you can only get here by helicopter, but even here weather conditions impose significant restrictions.

Since the territory belongs to specially protected and significant places on our planet, all movements of tourists are limited to trails and special routes. Such special measures have been taken by the administration of the reserve for the safety of tourists and the protection of the wild inhabitants of Kuril Lake. You can enter the territory of the reserve only after completing a number of documents and special temporary passes.

The cost of visiting these places is comparable in price to a stay in luxury five-star hotels, with the best service and exquisite cuisine. But there are no restaurants or hotels here, only small wooden houses or roomy tents. But all around is unique nature, clean air, gorgeous views of majestic mountains and dormant volcanoes. On the shores of Kuril Lake and in its surroundings you will have to live next to bears and other predators, watch them in natural conditions and enjoy the beauty of pristine nature.

Those who can visit these fabulous places may be very lucky. Dormant, but still hot and powerful volcanoes can swallow these sparkling Kamchatka lakes in an instant. Well, it’s probably even right that the thrill and picturesqueness of a miracle is always given to us, ungrateful people, only for a while...

Kamchatka is characterized by a dense hydrographic network. More than 6 thousand large and small rivers flow through its territory, but only a few of them are more than 200 km long and only 7 are more than 300 km long. The largest river of the peninsula is Kamchatka, with a length of more than 750 km.

Many rivers along their entire length are turbulent with rapids and waterfalls. The largest of them: Kamchatka and Bolshaya - are navigable only in the lower estuary part, where sand spits fenced off from the ocean form estuaries.

Volcanic areas are characterized by “dry” rivers, in which water appears only for a short time during the period of snowmelt. Many rivers have long been chosen by lovers of water travel. The most popular are short rafting trips with fishing on the rivers: Kamchatka, Zhupanova, Bystraya (Malkinskaya), Kol, Karymchina, Left Avacha, Opala, Pymta, Elovka, Tigil...

Other rivers: Pravaya and Levaya Avacha, Bystraya (Essovskaya), Levaya Shchapina, Nalycheva are of sporting interest for experienced tourists.

The lakes of the peninsula are numerous and varied in their origin. Small swampy, often overgrown lakes are scattered in the lowlands and in the estuarine floodplains of some rivers. One of them is Lake Nalychevo.

Higher up, lakes are common, lying in the depressions of the hilly terrain formed by terminal moraines during the glaciation of Kamchatka. The largest of them are Lake Nachikinskoye and Dvukhyurtochnoye.

The formation of many lakes is associated with volcanic activity. Some of them are located in depressions during the subsidence of individual sections of the earth's surface above devastated magma chambers or at the bottom of explosion craters, such as lakes Kurilskoye and Karymskoye; lakes in craters of volcanoes: Ksudach, Khangar, Uzon; deep tectonic depressions, such as Lake Azhabachye.

The largest lake in Kamchatka, Kronotskoye, was formed in a river valley blocked by powerful lava flows of the Krasheninnikov volcano.

A large amount of precipitation, the presence of permafrost, long-melting snow in the mountains, low evaporation, and mountainous terrain are the reasons for the development of an exceptionally dense hydraulic network within the Kamchatka Territory.

There are 140,100 rivers and streams in Kamchatka, but only 105 of them are longer than 100 km. Despite their insignificant depth, the rivers are extremely deep.

The Kamchatka River (length 758 km) and the Penzhina River (713 km) stand out sharply in size. Most Kamchatka rivers flow in a latitudinal direction, which is due to the meridional nature of the main watersheds: the Sredinny and Eastern ridges.

Kamchatka rivers are mountainous in the upper reaches and calm in the plains. When they flow into the sea, many of them usually form spits, and at their mouths there are underwater shafts and bars.

Within the mountains, rivers flow in relatively narrow V-shaped valleys with steep slopes and have a fast, often rapids flow. The bottom and slopes of the valleys are composed of large coarse clastic material (boulders, pebbles, gravel). As rivers approach the plains, the size of the material composing the valleys and river beds decreases; The flow of rivers slows down and becomes calmer.

In general terms, the coastal lowlands are a combination of flat wetlands, concentrated mainly near the coast, undulating, hilly interfluve areas and wide river valleys. Within the hilly plains, river channels branch into channels and branches, and on the coastal lowlands they form many bends and old rivers.

Mountain rivers are distributed exclusively within mountainous regions. Basically, they correspond to the upper sections of rivers, but on large rivers this pattern is violated. Often, when crossing the spurs of ridges, rivers in the middle and even lower reaches acquire a mountainous flow due to the large slopes of the valley.

Rivers within mountainous regions with maximum elevation differences have rapids-waterfall channels. They are characterized by alternating rapids and waterfalls with segments of stagnant zones. Such rivers are usually small in size and flow along the bottom of valleys with steep slopes. The length of such sections ranges from a few percent of the entire length of the river (if the river downstream flows into the foothills and plains) to 100% (small rivers and streams flowing throughout their entire length within mountainous regions).

As the relief gradually levels out, the rapids and waterfalls disappear, but the nature of the flow still remains turbulent. In addition, as tributaries flow in, the size and water content of rivers (i.e., the amount of water flowing through a cross-section of a river in a certain period of time) increase. Such rivers are most characterized by a rectilinear channel shape with separate single islands and forced bends (bends in the river channel). The formation of such bends is due to the fact that the river flow tends to go around rocky ledges composed of strong, indestructible rocks, and thereby acquires a tortuous shape.

In some areas, mountain rivers form large erosion holes, the depth of which is tens of times greater than the average depth of the river. Such holes are good refuges for fish, since the current speeds in them are sharply reduced.

On the large rivers of Kamchatka you can also observe areas with rapid flow. Narrow valleys with steep slopes and high current speeds (> 1 m/s) may be due to the restriction of rivers by spurs of mountain ranges. On rivers that, in general, do not have a deep and flat channel, there are always sections with a significant slope, leading to a sharp increase in flow speeds, which, due to the shallow depth and rockiness of the channels, makes the flow turbulent. Such rivers, as a rule, flow in a single channel and only a few islands divide the flow into branches. The islands here are high and represent clusters of large pebbles, overgrown with birch and alder bushes. Open pebble banks form above and below the islands.

The most beautiful banks of mountain rivers attract attention. When approaching the ridges they take on the appearance of high rocky ledges. The mosses and lichens growing on them give the rocks a red-brown or green color.

When moving from mountainous to flat conditions, the steepness of river valleys and the flow speed sharply decrease. For these reasons, the flow power becomes insufficient to move river sediments (boulders, pebbles). This material is deposited directly in the river bed, forming peculiar islands called sedges. As a result, a bizarre and very dynamic pattern is formed from many ducts separated by islands. These types of channels are most common in the lower reaches of small rivers.

Another distinctive feature of these rivers is the presence of a large amount of driftwood (various sizes of logs and branches) in the riverbed, which is associated with the rivers exiting into the forest area. During periods of spring snowmelt, as well as after heavy rains, the water level in rivers and flow speeds increase, and the flow of water intensively erodes the banks. As a result, a huge amount of woody material enters the river and is deposited downstream on the shallows - near islands or coastal spits. That is why the largest creases (accumulations of branches, cramps, as well as entire tree trunks) lead to the splitting of the river into channels, some of which have the opposite direction to the main flow of the river.

The Vilyuchinskie thermal springs consist of two groups of springs with water temperatures from 40° to 60°C, located in the picturesque valley of the Vilyucha River among small-leaved forests and shrubs; the springs are decorated with travertine domes and dense colonies of thermophilic algae with specific biological communities; the slopes of the river valley are convenient for skiing; and just above the springs the river forms a beautiful waterfall 40 m high.

The Nalychevo thermal springs - the largest thermal carbon dioxide springs in Kamchatka - are discharged in the interfluve of the Goryachaya and Zheltaya rivers over an area of ​​more than 2 km 2. At the foot of Mount Kruglaya, sediments from the springs formed a huge travertine shield with an area of ​​more than 50,000 km 2 with a dome composed of carbonate and ferrous-arsenic sediments (the dome was called the “cauldron”). Along its periphery, many hot springs emerge, forming a stream. The dome is surrounded by thermal swamps.

In the Goryachaya floodplain, for 2.5 km, thermal outlets are concentrated in the form of short hot streams flowing into a cold river, as well as in the form of small lakes, puddles and swamps. In these streams and lakes, extensive colonies of thermophilic algae have grown, forming multi-colored dense mats - pillows. The same springs are located on the Zheltaya River, 600 m from the mouth.

Thaw hot springs are located 6 km from Nalychevskiye on the left side of the Porozhistaya valley. The outlets can be traced over a distance of 1 km, their temperature is 31-38°C, and the total visible flow rate is 6 l/sec. Hidden unloading into alluvium has been installed. The main outlets of the springs - the so-called “Talovy Kettle” - are located in a clearing in a dense birch forest. Here, at the foot of the hill, two bright orange travertine cones with a diameter of 45 m and a height of 13 m have formed. Warm streams flow down the surface of the travertines. The space between the domes and at the foot is swampy.

The water of the Talovy hot springs belongs to the same hydrochemical type as the Nalychevsky ones, but the content of sulfate and bicarbonate in it is slightly higher. In addition, travertines from melt springs contain more arsenic sediments. Finally, unlike the water of the Nalychevo springs, the water of the Talovs is pleasant to the taste.

Local historical thermal springs emerge along the banks of the Talovaya River, 2 km above its confluence with the Shaibnaya River. The distance to Nalychevo springs is 8 km. Outlets of thermal waters in the form of individual griffins and weak seeps can be traced in the swampy floodplain of the river for 100 m. The water temperature is 32-52 ° C, the total flow rate is 7 l / sec, it tastes bitter and salty, and its composition is similar to the composition of the Nalychevo thermal baths, but with greater mineralization. Local historical baths do not deposit travertines; their gas composition contains more nitrogen.

Verkhne-Zhirovsky steam jets and springs are located in the upper reaches of the Zhirovaya River, on its left bank. The area where the springs and steam jets emerge is a hard-to-reach gorge with very steep sides several hundred meters high. Thermal springs and steam jets are scattered over a large area. Almost all of them are located on steep slopes or in steep gullies. Three areas are distinguished, in which, like in the areas of the North Mutnovsky thermal baths, there are steam jets, mud boilers, and heated areas with a boiling point, and lower down the slope, at the water’s edge in the Zhirovaya River, there are springs with a temperature of 60-72 °C. The chemical composition of the steam condensate is sulfate-calcium-sodium with low total mineralization of 0.2-0.5 g/l.