Lake Nachikinskoye

Lake Nachikinskoye (Озеро Начикинское) lies in the Yelizovsky District of Kamchatka Krai, in a basin between the Khalzan, Bystrinsky and Vachkazhets mountain ranges, away from the peninsula's main road. It is a glacial lake at an elevation of 348 meters above sea level — one of the notable freshwater lakes of Kamchatka and a major spawning ground for Pacific salmon, ringed by low mountains that shelter it from wind and keep it away from casual view.

Nature

The lake's surface area is about 7.28 square kilometers, and its catchment basin covers 202 square kilometers. The Plotnikova River begins on the lake's northern shore, carrying its water further down the valley. Because of its glacial origin, the lake basin is deep, and its shores are enclosed by the Khalzan, Bystrinsky and Vachkazhets mountain ranges, which keep the place quiet even at the height of Kamchatka's tourist season.

The lake is a spawning ground for sockeye salmon, coho salmon and pink salmon, and its waters are also home to Dolly Varden char and lake char. When salmon enter the lake and its tributaries in large numbers to spawn, brown bears come to feed, and in those weeks visitors can watch both the fish running and the bears fishing on the shore at the same time — a scene typical of Kamchatka's spawning lakes, here especially pronounced because of the sheer number of fish that come in.

Protection status

On September 23, 2022, Lake Nachikinskoye received the status of a specially protected natural area — a regional wildlife refuge (zakaznik). The status formalized the protection regime for the salmon spawning grounds and for the areas around the lake where bears feed, restricting activities that could harm this ecosystem.

What to see

The main reason to visit Nachikinskoye is to watch the salmon run and the bears that follow it during the peak of the spawning season: from the shore you can clearly see both the shoals of fish in the shallows and the animals that have come out to fish. A campsite called "Ozero Nachikinskoye" operates on the lake's left bank, with tent sites and basic overnight infrastructure, meant for visitors who come for a day or two to watch the lake and its wildlife.

Getting there

The lake is reached via the Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky — Milkovo highway: at around the 85th to 87th kilometer, a dirt forest road branches off the paved route. From there it is about 7 kilometers of unpaved track through the forest, so the lake is only accessible by a properly equipped four-wheel-drive (4x4) vehicle; an ordinary passenger car cannot make this last stretch.