I got "hooked" by the Erman's birch topic recently and I am still thinking about it. From time to time I remember a particular photo from my archives, for example the one on which a huge bear approaches the trees as he was a totally drunk poet trying to get a hug from local girls on a party. Or I would come across the picture of the foxes that pretend to be squirrels and climb almost to the crowns. I wonder why did I never tell you about my favorite birch tree? The one from the Valley of Geysers.
If you descend from the rangers cabin and other human buildings down to the geysers, you will definitely pass this ancient tree. It was already mature when first Russian cossacks came from the north to Kamchatka peninsula and explored it down to the very southern tip. But the Valley of Geysers remained unknown to the newcomers for approximately another two hundred and fifty years.
First modern people who admired this particular birch tree in the summer of 1941 were Tatyana Ustinova and Anysyfor Krupenin when they discovered the Valley of Geysers in Kronotsky Nature Reserve. Nowadays thousands of tourists, who come to see the geysers and other wonders of Kamchatka every summer, are wowed by the beauty of this large and marvelous tree.
And during other seasons only park rangers and scientists are lucky enough to visit it. And of course, the bears, who just love taking good naps under the tree shade.
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