The Valley of 10,000 Smokes

Book Recommendation Panelist, Adrianna Weickhardt backpacking through the Valley of 10,000 when she was a Park Ranger at Katmai National Park and Preserve

If you get excited by geology, volcanic activity, or vintage scientific reports, you’ll love the 1922 report from the National Geographic Society that was nominated for our Summer issue of Nature Book Guide by Adrianna Weickhardt—The Valley of 10,000 Smokes by Robert F. Griggs.

Copies of the original report are available for sale through the reprint publisher, Legare Street Press, however, the book is in the public domain and can be accessed without charge here.

You can access our Summer issue of Nature Book Guide via the “Downloads” tab to read Adrianna’s full recommendation. Here’s a snippet:

"In 2017, I moved to Alaska to work at Katmai National Park and Preserve-one of my favorite places on earth-as a Park Ranger. Today, when visitors head to the Valley of 10,000 Smokes, they see a moonlike landscape altered by the Novarupta eruption of 1912. The "smokes" were a result of water being vaporized below the superheated pyroclastic flow.

Read the account to understand the power of the volcanic eruption and the expedition to understand its impact. It is a thorough and often charming report—you’ll even learn how expedition members used heat powering up through the earth to cook bacon!

Adrianna Weickhardt, Book Recommendation Panelist backpacking through the Valley of 10,000 Smokes