Спуск по начавшему подтаивать снегу на крутом склоне - задача не для слабых духом. Это именно то, о чём предупреждали перед подъёмом - вскарабкаться на вершину в кроссовках гораздо легче, чем...знают только организаторы :) Вообще подъём на Авачинскую сопку не считается у камчатцев чем-то экстраординарным, хвастаться тут нечем. Но лично я добился своего, поэтому настроение у меня хорошее :)

Это специальный пост для расширения границ ваших мониторов :)                        

Горизонт завален, я знаю :)   На вершине сильный сероводородный запах, его концентрация зависит как от активности фумарол, так и от силы и направления ветра.     Традиционные...извержения Авачинского вулкана 1991 года.   Народ тем не менее продолжает подниматься.       Кратер вулкана заткнуть лавовой пробкой, сквозь которую пробивают фумаролы.

Это - картинка с обязательным сюжетом для каждого поста, претендующего на привлечение внимания :) На самом деле эта девица продефилировала мимо в таком наряде (t=~10°C), громко рекомендуя по сотовому... Спасительная верёвка. Если добрался досюда - считай, уже наверху, осталось 50 метров. Я ДОШЁЛ! На часах 12:20, время, затраченное на подъём - 5 часов 20 минут. Остальные фото - отдельным постом :)

I could have spent the whole Yellowstone trip photographing wildflowers. I didn't, but I still captured a few. This one is a Penstemon , I believe Wasatch penstemon, specifically. Clearly a lupine... Behind us a hillside is thick with the paintbrushes we'd risked life and limb to find earlier in the day. I find a path up the rocky slope, and uncontrollably weep when I see the spring from above.

On our last day in the park, we woke up early to beat the traffic and see some things without being surrounded by fellow tourists. It worked, in fact the park is even more beautiful in the early hours...has its own name. I don't know what it is, though. This is Sheepeater Cliffs, one of many sets of geometric basalt columns in the park. They are wonderfully painted with many colorful lichens

...what it was until after the rotary meeting when I was told that it isn't uncommon to have earthquakes in this part of the world, and really it shouldn't surprise me, being enfolded between all these volcanoes, active or not. Its just part of the geography. Anyhow, after the rotary meeting we went out to eat because we were all hungry and I had flan, which was actually kind of nasty. And that brings...

Old Faithful is the most well-known and frequently visited thermal feature of Yellowstone. The facts that it reliably erupts every 90 minutes or so (though the eruption we attended was about 20 minutes...helped contribute to its popularity. It's the only geyser most people know by name. Visiting was weirdly like going to see celebrity, or a famous animal at a zoo, like Free Willy.

In the last post I mentioned hot springs water entering the rivers. Here it is, water from the Midway Geyser Basin flowing into the Firehole River. There are several of these big blue pools...up behind it (see the bare spot halfway up the hill?) and viewed it from above. The hot and cold mist gusting across the Spring into your face was indescribable. It felt like being on another world

I told you there were more pictures. Remember the fresh travertine terraces I showed you a week ago? Well, after several hundred thousand years of them building up and whatnot, they turn into this..."Beryl pool," because of its gem-like color. Hot water from the springs mix with the cold snowmelt river water. Which in some places produce waters which are safe and pleasant to swim in