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Port Valdez

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Alaska

Quick Facts

  • Location: 61 ° 6' 20" N, 146 ° 30' 7" W
  • Region: Valdez
  • Nearest City: Valdez
  • Uses: Boating, Fishing, Kayaking, Motor Boating, Open Water Kayaking, Sailing
  • Length: 13 mi (20.92 km)
  • Parent: Valdez Narrows

Details

Getting There
Get to Valdez.

About
Port Valdez is a 13 mile long, glacier carved fjord that runs almost exactly east-west, in to the Chugach Mountains. The town of Valdez sits on its north shore while the Alyeska Marine Terminal resides on the south shore.

In May as many ten humpback whales have been counted entering Port Valdez, other years none. Dall's porpoise may occasionally enter Port Valdez. While seals, sea lions, and sea otters are year round residents of Port Valdez.

In June-July Port Valdez can be pack with seiners catching pink salmon.

History
Named on June 16, 1790 by Don Salvador Fidalgo for the celebrated Spanish naval officer Antonio Valdes y Basan. Having been adopted by Captain Vancouver, the name came into local use (Wagner, 1937, p. 420).

Topo Maps

Valdez (1952), Valdez (1952), Valdez (1952), Valdez (1952), Valdez A-7 (1960), Valdez A-7 (1960), Valdez A-7 (1960), Valdez (1960), Valdez (1960), Valdez (1960), Valdez (1960), Valdez (1960), Valdez (1960), Valdez A-7 (1996), Valdez A-7 SW (2016),

Related Places

Bays: Anderson Bay,

Capes: Jackson Point,

Arms: Annin Glacier,

Islands: Entrance Island,

Tributaries: Lowe River,

Tributaries: Allison Creek, Gold Creek, Mineral Creek, Salmon Creek, Sawmill Creek, Valdez Glacier Stream,

Valleys: Solomon Gulch,

Gallery

Pictures of, from, or near Port Valdez.

Glaucous-winged (large white and grey), Bonaparte's (black head), and a mew (bottom right) gulls, watch eagerly as a bald eagle picks apart a salmon along Port Valdez.
A bald eagle looks for fisherman scraps along Port Valdez.
Glaucous-winged gulls, and a crow, wait for a bald eagle to leave them some food, along Port Valdez, and Solomon Gulch.
A Piper PA-14 flies over Port Valdez.
Looking out at Valdez, and Port Valdez from Hogsback. Lowe River flowing in to Port Valdez from the left, Valdez Glacier Stream from the right.
Surf Scoters run across the surface of Port Valdez.
A common murre in Port Valdez.
Looking down at Shoup Bay while flying out of Valdez.
Looking out over Valdez and across Port Valdez.
Hiking along Shoup Bay Trail just after leaving the flats. Looking out at Port Valdez.
Looking out across Port Valdez from Shoup Bay Trail.
A pair of hikers stop looking down on High School Hill pointing out sections of the trail while discussing.
Looking down the water tower trail section of High School Hill in Valdez.
Looking out over Valdez from High School Hill behind town.
Looking down Port Valdes with Mount Thomas at the end and Mount Shasta to the right.
A group of Steller sea lions haul out on Middle Rock, in Port Valdez.
Short-billed dowitchers on the shore of Port Valdez.
A black oystercatcher calls from the rocks on the shores of Port Valdez.
Looking west at Entrance Island in Port Valdez.
A humpback whale breaching in Port Valdez.
Looking down the Lowe River near Valdez and on out to Port Valdez.

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