Point Defiance Park
27 Trails
200 POIs
7 Picnic Sites
6 Viewpoints
Description
Point Defiance Park in Tacoma, Washington is a large urban park in the United States. The 760-acre (3.1 km2) park includes Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium, the Rose Garden, Rhododendron Garden, beaches, trails, a boardwalk, a boathouse, a Washington State Ferries ferry dock for the Point Defiance-Tahlequah route to Vashon Island, Fort Nisqually, an off-leash dog park, and most notably a stand of old-growth forest. It receives more than three million visitors every year. Point Defiance Park is maintained and operated by the Metropolitan Park District of Tacoma. As the largest urban park in Pierce County, the network of roads and trails weaving through the forest preserve provides a quiet retreat for joggers, cyclists, hikers. Trails are marked with symbols. Portions of The Five Mile Drive are closed to cars on Saturday. There are many hiking trails along Pt. Defiance's cliffs, that have sweeping views of Vashon Island, Dalco Passage, Gig Harbor, and the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. The road network also passes by Fort Nisqually. From Owen Beach, kayakers launch and ride the strong currents north into the tidal rips. Fishermen drift in these tides waiting for salmon bound to south sound rivers. The 100-foot-tall (30 m) cliffs provide a buffer. Gliding out into the narrows, kayakers find a quiet oasis in the middle of an urban environment. There are also many beach goers, willing to venture further up the peninsula.
Trails in the Hikepack map
- Inside Loop Trail (Yellow)
- Main Street
- Outer Loop (Blue)
- Outside Loop Trail (Blue)
- Owen Beach
- Path to Owen Beach
- Ruston Way Trail
- Spine Trail
- Trolley Lane
Attractions in the Hikepack map
- #10 & #11
- Animal Exercise Area
- Anthem Coffee and Tea
- Anthony's at Point Defiance
- Arctic Fox
- Asian Elephants
- Asian Small-Clawed Otters
- Bengal Tigers & Waterfall Panorama
- Bridges Viewpoint
- Budgie Buddies
- Camel Rides
- Carousel
- Clouded Leopard
- Clouded Leopard Cub Den
- Dalco Passage Viewpoint
- Elephant Lot
- Farrelli's Woodfired Pizza
- Fish Brewing Pub & Eatery
- Fort Nisqually
- Gate 7
- Gig Harbor Viewpoint
- Goats
- Ice Cream Social
- In Touch with the Wild
- Jewel Box Cafe
- Kids' Zone
- Lemurs
- Lot A
- Lowland Anoa
- Magellanic Penguins
- Meerkats
- Mio Sushi
- Muskoxen
- Narrows Viewpoint
- Owen Beach Snackhouse
- Pearl Street Sea Grille
- Plaza Cafe
- Point Defiance Lodge Visitors Center
- Point Defiance Terminal
- Point Ruston Public Parking
- Polar Bears
- Puffins
- Red Wolf Picnic Area
- Red Wolves
- Reindeer
- Ruston
- Sea Otters
- Seals
- Siamang
- Stack 571 Burger & Whiskey Bar
- Swirl Ice Cream & Treats
- The Boat House
- The Mountaineer Tree
- Two Town Pub & Cafe
- Vashon Viewpoint
- Wallabies
- Walruses
- WildFin American Grill - Tacoma
Copyright
The PDF and JPG maps are released by Hikepack under the Creative Commons license Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
Contains data ©OpenStreetMap contributors (https://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright) under the Open Database License (https://opendatacommons.org/licenses/odbl/). Topographic map based on elevation data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Aerial imagery available from the U.S. Geological Survey. Description text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License from Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_Attribution-ShareAlike_3.0_Unported_License). Cover image ©Turtleey https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Point_Defiance_Forest.jpg CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).
