Shoup Bay is an inlet of

Port Valdez Port Valdez is a fjord of Prince William Sound in Alaska, United States. Its main settlement is Valdez, located near the head of the bay. It marks the southern terminus of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System. The bay is oriented east-west and it ...

inside the Valdez Arm of

Prince William Sound Prince William Sound (Sugpiaq: ''Suungaaciq'') is a sound of the Gulf of Alaska on the south coast of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is located on the east side of the Kenai Peninsula. Its largest port is Valdez, at the southern terminus of the Tr ...

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...

. steep-walled, flat-bottomed basin with a depth of approximately 200 ft. described as a hanging valley that formed during more extensive Pleistocene glaciation. Located eight miles west of Valdez,

, United States, it is fed by Shoup Glacier, as well as McCallister Creek, Palmer Creek, and Uno Creek. The bay itself opens into the Valdez Narrows and is included as part of the Shoup Bay State Marine Park.

Etymology

Shoup Bay is an Ice Age remnant but its name is far more recent: as late as the early 1900s, the nearby glacier was referred to as "Canyon Creek Glacier"; it wasn't until 1899 that Captain W. R. Abercrombie had the local name "Shoup" reported to him, referring to the glacier, and it wasn't until 1905 that the

U.S. Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, and ...

(USGS) noted the waterway as Shoup Bay.

Shoup Bay State Marine Park

Shoup Bay State Marine Park is located five miles southwest of the

Port of Valdez Valdez ( ; Alutiiq: ) is a city in the Chugach Census Area in the U.S. state of Alaska. According to the 2020 US Census, the population of the city is 3,985, up from 3,976 in 2010. It is the third most populated city in Alaska's Unorganized Borou ...

. The primary access is by boat, although an 11-mile trail from Valdez to the park is available. The bay is famous for the 150-foot tidal wave, which supposedly surged in and out of the bay three times during the 1964 earthquake. The bay has changed substantially since then, in large part due to the swiftly receding Shoup Glacier, which has lost roughly a mile and a half of depth since it was first recorded by the USGS changing the terrain. Because of the glacier's close proximity, icebergs can often be found floating in the bay. Due to a cold microclimate, timber is sparse in the Shoup Glacier valley, with the uplands consisting mostly of new growth forest of

alder Alders are trees comprising the genus ''Alnus'' in the birch family Betulaceae. The genus comprises about 35 species of monoecious trees and shrubs, a few reaching a large size, distributed throughout the north temperate zone with a few sp ...

and

spruce A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' (), a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal (taiga) regions of the Earth. ''Picea'' is the sole genus in the subfami ...

. The surrounding mountain walls are very steep, providing habitat for

mountain goat The mountain goat (''Oreamnos americanus''), also known as the Rocky Mountain goat, is a hoofed mammal endemic to mountainous areas of western North America. A subalpine to alpine species, it is a sure-footed climber commonly seen on cliffs and ...

s and

black bear Black bear or Blackbear may refer to: Animals * American black bear (''Ursus americanus''), a North American bear species * Asian black bear (''Ursus thibetanus''), an Asian bear species Music * Black Bear (band), a Canadian First Nations group ...

. Waterfowl flock in abundance here, from the

black-legged kittiwake The black-legged kittiwake (''Rissa tridactyla'') is a seabird species in the gull family Laridae. This species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae'' as ''Larus tridactylus''. The English ...

rookery A rookery is a colony of breeding animals, generally gregarious birds. Coming from the nesting habits of rooks, the term is used for corvids and the breeding grounds of colony-forming seabirds, marine mammals (true seals and sea lions), and ev ...

in the lagoon to

bald eagle The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies the same niche as ...

s and arctic terns.

References

Geography of Alaska Bays of Alaska {{Alaska-geo-stub