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Point Defiance Park
Rating Details »
5400 N. Pearl Street
Tacoma, WA 98407
(253) 305-1016
Tacoma, WA 98407
(253) 305-1016
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
32 reviews for Point Defiance Park
What an incredible place and such a short way to go to get there. I wish I had heard about it sooner.
The views of the sound and trees are incredible. Owens Beach looks like a great place for a BBQ or picnic. The train ride through the logging camp was very entertaining. The Zoo was okay, could use more animals, but I really like the aquarium especially the main tank that had all of the fish you would see locally.
I plan on coming back over and over.
I may be a little one sided on this, because this qualifies as our neighborhood park, but we're here a few times a week at least. When we can cough up the cash the zoo located inside is also a fun thing to do with the kid. The park itself though is gorgeous, Owen Beach is always nice to walk along and find interesting shells and rocks. Beware though, there are usually a lot of dogs in the park (and why not, it's a great place to walk a dog!) so be prepared if you bring little ones, they might get overwhelmed with the puppies.
I love taking my three year old here, she's got ample space to play in a very shaded playground area that's never lacking in other kids to play with. The rose garden is beautiful, and I love looking at all the different types of landscaping themes in the park. Walking/biking/driving the 5 Mile Drive is also fun. It's a gorgeous throwback to realizing what the Puget Sound must have looked like before settlement happened.
There are also two bus lines that run directly to the park, the 10, which begins at TCC and the 11 which begins at Commerce Transit Center (however, route 41 turns into the 11 for most of the day, so you could even ride the bus all the way from the 72nd street Transit Center.)
All in all, it's a great place to go when you want to relax or let the kids play,.
There's no way I'm not giving this place 5 big stars!! The place is so big and there is so much to do, I'm not even close to finish exploring this place. The best thing is that I can take my dogs out with me and take them almost anywhere in the park.
I just drove through the 5 mile drive two days ago and it was nice and quiet. Yesterday my husband and I even went crabbing but didn't catch anything-boohoo :( You can even go fishing, boat riding, kayaking. There's just so much to do---bbq, kids play areas, swimming in the ocean, and so much more.
It feels so great every time we enter the park, so peaceful, stress-free, the air is so much fresher too! Highly recommended, go check it out!!
Honestly how could anyone give Pt Defiance less than 5 Stars??? It literally has it all. A beach, a view, the forest, wildlife, gardens, kids play areas, a boat launch, a zoo, aquarium, a museum, and probably more than all of that.
Where to begin with Pt Defiance? You can drive around it and just enjoy its beauty and you will fall in love with the place. It's real value is felt when you get out and explore. Walking the trails inside the forest is a wonderful experience and really something unique in such an urban setting. The beach is great, especially if you go early during low tide and walk around the point. The rhododendron garden can be beautiful at times and really provides a perfect spot for photography. The zoo/aquarium deserves its own review but is another great part of this amazing urban park.
One of the very best things about Tacoma is Point Defiance Park.
I headed out there today for the first sunny day of Spring and, as always, totally forgot about the fact that I wouldn't be the only one to have this genius idea--traffic was backed up almost ten blocks from the entrance. Yes, Tacomans love Point Defiance and this is the first place they'll head when the weather's clear and warm. But despite this, we were able to find parking at Owen Beach right away, and didn't feel overwhelmed by crowds. It was busy, but with plenty of room for everyone to stretch out and enjoy the sun. The concession stand was open, people were out on the Sound in their rented kayaks, and we found a nice seat on the driftwood to eat a picnic lunch and people watch. It almost felt like summer.
Of course, the park is multipurpose and it would be pointless to try and summarize everything in one review: 5-mile drive, tide pools, the zoo and aquarium, trails, gardens, etc. Not to mention the various events they have throughout the year. There's probably something for any lover of the outdoors here.
There is no place like Point D! Best park in Washington
This is the best park! You can take the dog to the beach, run on the vast network of trails, ride your bike (without traffic along 5 mile on weekends for restricted hours), wander amongst the rose and azalea gardens. This old growth forest is a natural calmer...just try to be stressed after an evening wandering in this beautiful place!
Okay! Totally biased. My friend took me here the very first time I visited Washington. It was a week in August before my junior year of college, the weather was warm, the sound was calm and beautiful, we ate a huge lunch on the water and I had just come off of a summer having worked full time in San Francisco.
I needed a getaway, and I swore once I left Washington that I was going to graduate from college and go live there forever. I may still! :) I sat on a picnic table with my friend, with big sunglasses on and couldn't get over how quiet and tranquil the area was. Then, at one point, car of cute boys cat called at us, and I was quickly reminded that I was in a college town-- my friends in attendance at University of Puget Sound at the time.
I remember the air feeling crisp, with plenty of shade and places for dog walkers, bikers and the two of us-- gossiping and walking along, and I went back my senior year of college with the same friend and my then boyfriend in October 2007- and the fall leaves were absolutely incredible. I had never seen anything like it, I thought fall only existed in Vermont, and I don't know-- in movies. Stupid old San Francisco with its ugly cypress trees and grey all year round.
This park is full of color, life, its romantic, calming and absolutely perfect for a few kisses and watching some sail boats.
I love this beautiful piece of heaven on earth. There is so much to do and see around here that you can easily spend an entire day. The grounds are amazingly well kept and absolutely gorgeous. My favorite photography subjects are flowers and butterflies and the rose gardens are a wonderful relaxing setting for that. I love that everywhere about this park is dog friendly. We were able to take our dog out to the beach and let him play and swim for a bit. I could probably go on and on about how wonderful this place truly is, but it's better if you just go see it for yourself.
This is a great place. We went to the zoo and then saw the 5 mile drive sign so we did that after the zoo. What a great drive, its the road to hana (hawaii) of washington. There is alot of turnouts to view things and take pictures. We saw a racoon jump out from the woods so i slowed down and stopped about 40 yards past it and it started walking our way and then it came up to the car and just stared at us, it was the coolest thing and we didnt know what to do. finally we drove off and we saw a 2nd one run across the street in front of us and once again we slowed down and it did the samething so we gave it a piece of granola bar and it took it and ran off in the woods, so we figured out what they wanted and then finally there was a 3rd one just sitting on the side of the road just waiting so we pulled up next to it and its right eye was missing, it was kind of freaky. It was a great drive and would love to spend more time there and do some different things.
It's a good place for every event possible to do with the outside.
This is a wonderful place to coem to see beauty, to people watch, to go to a well-laid out zoo. It is tasteful in hidign the parking an dkeeping road noise from the interior.
We took a group of pre-schoolers here last summer on a field trip[. It worked well for us.. all except when we went to hear a lecture on tigers and the speaker began discussing habits of mating and the male tiger..
mmm
Well, they are pre-schoool kids.. they didn't exactly get it.. adn we rushed them along to see the monkeys.
This is my therapy place. I go here to run away all of the stress of the week, to feel alive and lucky to be able to run in such a beautiful place. I see deer, squirrels, chipmunks, fox, and racoons on a normal run and the only thing i fear here are people popping out of nowhere into my world.
PS..Please don't feed racoons, they make more babies who never make it to the next year because there isn't enough people feeding them year around. Do them a favor and let there be less quantity but more quality of life.
I lived in Tacoma for a few years and Point Defiance was always a favorite spot to go and unwind. If you enjoy fishing then walk down to Owens Beach and walk a little west to the claybanks for great salmon and rockfish. If nature is your thing then try out the 5 mile drive and be careful not to plow into any deer on your journey. You also get a great view of the Whales when they make their way through Puget Sound.
Be sure to bring lots of film or a high capacity memory card because you'll need it.
Owen Beach on a nice day? If you haven't done it, you gotta, it's a great place to beachcomb or picnic next to the water. Fun.
Free public park with a zoo and aquarium attached. Deserves 6 stars.
I LOVE PDP! The single place where you can find the most entertainment (and cheap, if not free!). My favorites are the 5 mile loop (drive, jog, bike), Owens beach and kayaking on the sound! I actually went kayaking on the 4th of July with a few friends. I was planning on doing a single, but one of my friends can't swim and had a fear of water (I'm so sadistic!) so I decided to do a double with him.
The plan was to kayak over on the other side (vashon?) and back under 1 hour. We would have made it if my friend wasn't so deathly scared everytime a boat induced wave came at us! lol. We were literally less than 200 meters away but had to turn back if we were to make it in time.
I'd advise anyone planning to kayak to wear SWIM WEAR! I brought shorts and a shirt and got totally soaked by the end of the journey (I might as well should have capsized in the water!). Or atleast an extra set of clothes
Best park in the world
The ground pollution from the now-defunct Asarco plant seems to have magical hallucinogenic powers because I thought Tacoma was stunningly beautiful from the long beach. The sweeping views in the rest of the park on a partly cloudy day are some of the best I've seen on the sound. You could easily spend a day exploring without getting bored.
I wouldn't know how to get back to them, but there also are some Asian-inspired gardens and a rose garden. There's a cool duck pond too, so you can hunt for dinner. Watch out though, the nearby grass is slippery.
Absolutely gorgeous. Makes you want to sing "the hills are alive with the sound of music" theme while spinning around with your arms flailing. The best time is to go during the summer when all the beautiful flowers: peonies, chrysanthemums, roses are in bloom. Then there's the pagoda, a cool place to host an event. You will love the views of the sound and the feeling you get when are in this place.
Good For: hiking, family picnic, rose garden, zoo
FREE entertainment! Does it get better than that? Moreover, it's BEAUTIFUL there!!! GORGEOUS flowers, trees, and a beach!
A few things to do with kids:
Feeding Ducks: not a good idea :(
Find different rocks on Owens Beach, be sure to walk all the way up too. There are lots of cute sayings on the sidewalk part leading to Anthony's. Can be crazy on the beach when it's really nice out, lots of dogs too.
Play Hide and Seek in the rose gardens!
Drive 5 Mile and find a picnic spot. So pack a meal. :) So many beautiful spots to choose!
Have a show by the statue when you first enter. It's the perfect "stage".
Ok, that's what my kids and I like to do anyway. They're young so it's easy fun for now! There is also a picnic area with toy equipment. Have been to a couple of birthday parties there, what an inexpensive idea! One even had a jumpy toy rented for there, you'd have to set that up yourself of course. :) Reservations are also needed, if I remember correctly!
So much to do and see at Pt Defiance, not only do you have the Aquarium and Zoo in the same area, you have the Japanese garden with the pagoda, You also have Ft Nisqually, which overlooked the nisqually delta near Dupont, You also have a great public beach in Owens beach, where you can wander and explore the beaches. The five mile drive has beautiful vistas and wildlife abound. For even more fun, visit Never Never land and the Logging Camp.
A great day to spend the afternoon, even if you do not go to the zoo.
When I first moved here from California, I really wanted to surround myself with beauty , to solidify my choice for moving to Washington.
This place did all of that in one afternoon , what could take maybe months for people. One stroll through this majestic place can make anyone alright with the world again.
Very therapeutic, like those nature scenes in anti-depressant commercials.
I love this park. It was one of my first adventures outside of Puyallup and I fell in love with the scenery. While I feel like the trails could be marked a little more clearly, it's a beautiful place to wander around and enjoy the scenery. There are also tennis courts, the Pagoda, Rose gardens and the Zoo. You could easily spend a few hours there.
This is a nice place to get away from reality for a bit and take a nice walk along the beach (Owen Beach). This is after walking amongst the flower gardens. Beautiful landscaping around this neck of the woods. Fort Nisqually took me back to a simpler time with its all-wood structure.
There are also trails here so you can get your walking or biking in.
Alot of enertainment for one price.
This is a pretty cool place.It has that oceany feel I miss from VA.Everyonce in awhile Id go here and just walk
It's kind of odd rating nature, but OK. Here I go. 5 stars. I just found this park really beautiful. We did the 5-mile drive and I found myself wishing I had (1) a bigger americano to nurse as I looked at the lovely scenery outside the window of our SUV and (2) my actual digital camera instead of just the camera built into my BlackBerry. This park (and the water view beyond) was so beautiful that even though some sort of tiny bug flew at me and grazed my forehead on that little beach down at the bottom, I was like, "Whatever. This place is pretty. I hope to come back and have a picnic here one day with my hypothetical children." I should add that the bathrooms at that little beach down at the bottom were reasonably clean, fully graffiti free, and there was even toilet paper and soap! Also, the timer on the little faucet allowed me to wash my hands to my full satisfaction.
Point Defiance? More like, Point Delightful (Place to Walk Your Dog)! Ha! Just park anywhere in the five mile drive through the heavenly Redwood Forest portion of the park and head out on a trail...it is doggie and human paradise. I believe the park is *technically* on leash but who's telling? Unless you are a lousy narc and then I've never walked a dog off leash in an on leash park EVER. i also love bloody red meat and am a virgin.
I cannot return to Tacoma without a visit to Point Defiance. By my estimation, it's Washington's answer to Vancouver's Stanley Park and you'd be remiss if you visited Tacoma without strolling, biking, or even just driving through Point Defiance.
There are a few different areas to the Park, each with their own merits (or demerits), here's my take:
+ Duck Pond / Rose Garden / Dahlia Trial Garden / etc: The main grassy area and fenced in gardens when you drive into the Park. The pond is a great place to lay out and picnic on a sunny day. Everyone strolls through the rose garden, a miniature version of Portland's famous rose garden, and you'll often see weddings held at its fringes. There are also a trove of mini-gardens showcasing a broad array of fuschia, and other flowers I can't remember the names of, mostly because I blur by them to the DAHLIAS. The Dahlia Trial Garden, cultivated by the Washington State Dahlia Society is so breathtaking you'd have to be color AND texture blind to not be taken by the different types, colors, and sizes of dahlias. From white to deep burgundy, cotton ball sized to bigger-than-my-head, I end up with hundreds of dahlia photos on every trip, rivalling the number of cupcake photos I also inevitably take.
- Japanese Garden and Pagoda : Another wedding site, usually for receptions and the like, the pagoda is a pretty piece of Asian architecture but the garden next to it is so poorly cared for that it's really not worhth a look.
+ 5-Mile Drive/Bike : A beautiful, calming drive that will take you past the beach parking, hydrangea, and other gardens, as well as a great view of the Tacoma Narrows bridges and Vashon island. The drive cuts through dense forest - a very rainforest-y feel were it not for the visible road and photography points. If you're a proficient cyclist this also makes for a wonderful bike excursion.
+ Beach : There's an official name for this beach, I can't recall it, but suffice to say it's the only real beach-area. On great weekends you'll see kayakers, perhaps the odd scuba diver. Park in the lot here to walk along the water, the cement sidewalk is decorated with quotes and poems etched in or scattered with leaf imprints and the like. If it's low tide, walk along the beach and see what sea creatures and detritus has washed up. Or just sit and watch the ferry through the fog and on a sunny day, all the recreational boaters.
+/- Zoo and Aquarium: I'm not a big advocate of zoos, but a visit with my nephew left him pretty thrilled so I'd say this zoo is decent.
+ Dock/Harbor area: What's really neat about this area is not the ferry or boats that currently inhabit the area but the history of the area - there used to be big industrial smokestacks and the like all along the waterway, right by the harbor. Reflect on how much poison is just under the surface of the harbor walls while you're waiting to board the ferry Tacoma was one of the first superfund sites that helped the EPA get started decades ago.
This is a great park full of virgin forest and is a great place to bird watch. I found myself chasing after a Pileated Woodpecker and next thing I knew I was lost. Yes I got lost in a park in the middle of a city. Worse yet I turned out to be about 20 feet from the path. This place is that dense. So be carefull and stay on the path or carry a whistle if you go off-road. But most of all enjoy this gem.
This is my hands down favorite park around Puget Sound. There's way too much to do here in a single day and it's the best place to bring a family with diverse interests. Aside from the obvious, and excellent, Zoo & Aquarium, there are Go-Karts and batting cages, putt-putt golf and picnic spots galore, a five mile drive through forests, with lots of scenic overlooks onto Puget Sound and a great beach, Owen Beach, which has lots of driftwood and picnic spots and places to soak up the sun. I have a bucket of very cool polished black beach rocks from here. Then there's the logging museum and the short but fun ride on the train through an old logging camp, plus Never Never Land where a huge Humpty Dumpty greets you sitting on a stack of books. There used to be more in Never Never Land, but vandals destroyed a lot. The giant shoe and several other structures are left and restored and little kids still have a blast playing here. There are also miles and miles of forested trails and Fort Nisqually, which is one of the most awesome LIVING history sites in the area.
An entire day is easily spent here - just be sure to leave before it gets dark. The park closes at sunset.
An excellent spot to spend the day.
A gem of Tacoma, really. The park is gorgeous, the zoo is loads of fun for families, and the natural forest and beach areas are just what we need in this town.
