The year is 1912, coincidentally the year of the Titanic sinking but a bigger disaster befell the planet with the second largest ever volcanic eruption on the planet occurring right here. The source was Katmai volcano erupting through a side vent a few miles away now known as Novarupta volcano. The resultant ash cloud went 20 miles into the air and was visible from Europe. Millions of tons of ash were dumped for miles around and the extra carbon in the atmosphere lowered global temperatures by 2 degrees celsius for the next 2 years. In 1918 this area was proclaimed a national park to preserve and study the area of the eruption. Paradoxically national park status has nothing to do with the bear show.
For the next 30 years the devastated area all around sported over 10,000 fumeroles belching out sulphurous gas hence the name. Sadly that has petered out but the day trip out here does not disappoint. Sadly the weather is not kind but I did use the available sunshine to the max yesterday and I can’t complain. At least the rain did not interfere with walking and photography. The cloud, while obscuring the ring of volcanoes was at least high enough to allow for some pictures of the moonscape like lava ash fields.
