Great luck! Employees of the Kronotsky Reserve made photo and video shoots of the eruption of the Grotto geyser in the Valley of Geysers

Here is what scientist Andrey Leonov writes about the Grotto in his monograph "Catalog of geysers of the Kronotsky Reserve":

"The Grotto is perhaps the most mystical geyser of the Valley. It is located on the ledge of the Stained Glass Window on the right, in a small cave shrouded in clouds of steam. Stories about its eruptions were considered fiction for a long time, until several such eruptions were photographed and filmed in 1991. Since then, many people have managed to see them, and the Grotto has been generally recognized as a geyser with very rare, non-periodic eruptions."

According to Leonov and other eyewitnesses, the eruption of the Grotto is a grand show. An inclined, almost horizontal jet of boiling water roars out of the cave across the entire Stained Glass Window, eroding clay and geyserite on its opposite edge. The length of the jet is estimated at 65 meters, the volume of the eruption is several dozens of cubic meters, which makes the Grotto the largest geyser of the Valley. However, only a few lucky people have managed to see its eruption. An interesting feature of the Grotto is that it can erupt in series up to 7 times in a row with breaks of 2-3 minutes, each eruption lasts 20-30 seconds.

Most of the time, the activity of the Grotto manifests itself in the form of a periodic outflow, which gave grounds to the discoverer of the Geyser River valley Tatiana Ustinova to attribute the hot spring to geysers, although she did not see its "real" eruptions. A powerful stream of boiling water from time to time rolls down the slope in a cascade of small waterfalls. Over the years, a peculiar channel has formed in the right part of the Stained Glass Window ("the drain of the Grotto"), which is clearly visible from afar due to its light yellow, sandy color.

"We finally saw the eruption! Grotto is the largest geyser in the Valley of Geysers by water discharge. The cycle of its work is unstable, it erupts very rarely, and few people have seen it. Those who are closely familiar with the Valley of Geysers will understand that this is a great success! The geyser worked for more than a minute, the stream of boiling water has beaten more than 40 meters in length. The Geyser River became muddy for a while. Everyone had a bunch of emotions. We thanked the Valley for showing us its most secretive geyser"! – Leonty Podstavin, the district state inspector of the Federal State Budgetary Institution "Kronotsky State Reserve" shared his impressions.