We had left the brown bears below us in the Valley of the Geysers, where they ambled among purple orchids, emerald grasses and the second-largest gathering of geysers on Earth.
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| Bear sauna (Igor Shpilenok |
Now, our small group of trekkers ascended through meadows gilded with golden rhododendron. We drank from snowfield streams. Spectacular volcanoes loomed ahead, part of the great arc of volcanic and seismic activity known as the Pacific Ring of Fire. We were trekking the highlands of Russia's Kronotsky Zapovednik, diadem of the world's largest system of strictly protected nature reserves.
And I was one of the first foreigners permitted to go hiking here as a mere tourist.