The Gulf of Alaska is an area of the Pacific Ocean that is defined by the curve of the southern coast of Alaska. It stretches from the Alaskan Peninsula and Kodiak Island in the west to the Alexander Archipelago in the east, where Glacier Bay and the Inside Passage are found.
The entire shoreline of the Gulf is a rugged combination of forest, mountain, and a number of tidewater glaciers. The coast is also heavily indented, with Cook Inlet and Prince William Sound the two largest connected bodies of water, but also including Yakutat Bay and Cross Sound.
The Gulf of Alaska is a great generator of storms. In addition to dumping vast quantities of snow and ice on southern Alaska, resulting in some of the largest concentrations south of the Arctic Circle, many of the storms move south along the coasts of British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon. Much of the seasonal rainfall in the Pacific Northwest comes from the Gulf of Alaska.
