Point Defiance Park

Author's Comments

What surprises me about Point Defiance is how quickly the city falls away. You enter past the gardens and the parking lots and within ten minutes you are inside genuine old growth, the kind of forest that takes centuries to assemble itself. Douglas fir and western red cedar, the understory thick with sword fern and salal, the light coming down in vertical shafts that move slowly across the trail as the afternoon progresses. It is easy to forget you are still inside Tacoma. Five Mile Drive is the spine of the park and I prefer it on the days when it closes to cars. Without the engines you can hear the water below the bluffs, and the pullouts that look across to Vashon and the Olympics become places to sit rather than places to pause. Late afternoon in October is when I find the drive at its best. The light comes in low from the west, the madrones along the bluffs glow orange against the water, and the Olympics across the Sound take on that particular cold blue that only happens when the air is clear and the sun is nearly down. Owen Beach is a different mood entirely. The Narrows Bridge sits in the middle distance and the beach itself is working coastline, all driftwood and gravel and the occasional freighter sliding past. I come here for the wide frames, the sky doing most of the work, the bridge giving the composition something to anchor on. The gardens peak in late spring, and they are worth the visit then. But the forest is the reason I keep returning, and the forest is good in every month of the year.

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