Last Sunday....
29 Jan 2026 08:00![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nwhikerI haven't been to Point Defiance Park in Tacoma many times, but we've been every few years or so, at various times of year. This time was different.
It was Sunday. We didn't want to get up crazy early to get out on a hike so we decided the day before we'd head to Point Defiance. The weather was predicted to be cold and sunny.
It was absolutely fantastic.
The plan was just walking around the park and on the beach there. Which we did. We saw a few harbor seals near the main beach.
As we walked down the beach to the point encountered a gull who was eating a sea star.
We continued down along the beach since it looked like there were some rocks and probably tide pools at the end of the point, and the tide was out.
But then, as we got closer... well, the rocks weren't quite rocks and resolved into a big bunch of harbor seals. So cool. So many of them. I have video, but haven't yet looked to see which was the best clip. Next photo has them in a bit closer.... and even closer, very zoomed in. No, I did not get too close. They are big. Anyhow, so cool!
As I said. I've been to this park before. I'd always heard you could see seals there, but never actually did, beyond one or two in the water. I am still not sure if we lucked out Sunday or were just unlucky to took ill-timed trips before.
We rounded the tip of the point and there was a whole long beach of empty. Cliff on one side, no trails up. We saw one guy, but aside from that, we had the whole beach, about a mile of it? to ourselves. We saw some cool anemones closed because at low tide, they literally covered the rock which was pretty big, and a few sea stars.
So. Long beach. No way out. We could backtrack but since we had plenty of time before the tide became a problem we walked down to the houses at other side of the point. They are 100% sketch. Build on piers with large posts, we walked under the houses amid these old posts occasionally seeing barnacle covered water heaters or the like. WTF. There were boats in "dry dock" waaaaaay above beach level, maybe high tide level???, it was hard to tell how high the water would come. I should check the tide data. We saw the Tacoma Narrows Bridge from that side.
This is what the houses looked liked from afar, in a photo I stole online, to give an idea.
Anyhow, we used a legit but maybe private path to get to the top of the cliff and yeah, oops, it was private but tbf there was no signage to that effect on the beach. We then had to walk around the neighborhood and the park to get back to the car. I didn't start Strava when we left the car, I forgot but here's the path we took. It ended up being over 5 miles recorded, a lot of it on sandy and or small rock beaches so I could feel it in my hips the next day!
All in all, a good day!
It was Sunday. We didn't want to get up crazy early to get out on a hike so we decided the day before we'd head to Point Defiance. The weather was predicted to be cold and sunny.
It was absolutely fantastic.
The plan was just walking around the park and on the beach there. Which we did. We saw a few harbor seals near the main beach.
As we walked down the beach to the point encountered a gull who was eating a sea star.
We continued down along the beach since it looked like there were some rocks and probably tide pools at the end of the point, and the tide was out.
But then, as we got closer... well, the rocks weren't quite rocks and resolved into a big bunch of harbor seals. So cool. So many of them. I have video, but haven't yet looked to see which was the best clip. Next photo has them in a bit closer.... and even closer, very zoomed in. No, I did not get too close. They are big. Anyhow, so cool!
As I said. I've been to this park before. I'd always heard you could see seals there, but never actually did, beyond one or two in the water. I am still not sure if we lucked out Sunday or were just unlucky to took ill-timed trips before.
We rounded the tip of the point and there was a whole long beach of empty. Cliff on one side, no trails up. We saw one guy, but aside from that, we had the whole beach, about a mile of it? to ourselves. We saw some cool anemones closed because at low tide, they literally covered the rock which was pretty big, and a few sea stars.
So. Long beach. No way out. We could backtrack but since we had plenty of time before the tide became a problem we walked down to the houses at other side of the point. They are 100% sketch. Build on piers with large posts, we walked under the houses amid these old posts occasionally seeing barnacle covered water heaters or the like. WTF. There were boats in "dry dock" waaaaaay above beach level, maybe high tide level???, it was hard to tell how high the water would come. I should check the tide data. We saw the Tacoma Narrows Bridge from that side.
This is what the houses looked liked from afar, in a photo I stole online, to give an idea.
Anyhow, we used a legit but maybe private path to get to the top of the cliff and yeah, oops, it was private but tbf there was no signage to that effect on the beach. We then had to walk around the neighborhood and the park to get back to the car. I didn't start Strava when we left the car, I forgot but here's the path we took. It ended up being over 5 miles recorded, a lot of it on sandy and or small rock beaches so I could feel it in my hips the next day!
All in all, a good day!
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Thoughts
Date: 29 Jan 2026 22:59 (UTC)Such an awesome picture of the gull with the flailing starfish! :D
>>But then, as we got closer... well, the rocks weren't quite rocks and resolved into a big bunch of harbor seals.<<
It's good to see so many of them.
>>We saw some cool anemones closed because at low tide, they literally covered the rock which was pretty big, and a few sea stars.<<
Wow, I thought they were barnacles.
>>This is what the houses looked liked from afar, in a photo I stole online, to give an idea.<<
Very pretty, but a very vulnerable position to build a house.
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Re: Thoughts
Date: 30 Jan 2026 21:24 (UTC)Yeah, these houses were built a long time ago... probably would never be allowed today. But they're 1) in Puget Sound and 2) protected by the point, so probably as safe from most ocean based stuff as can be, unlike, say, houses on the the Carolina coastline! But yeah, if I were buying real estate on the water, they would not be my top pick! :)
Re: Thoughts
Date: 30 Jan 2026 22:13 (UTC):D It would be great to have a new member.
>> protected by the point, so probably as safe from most ocean based stuff as can be, <<
I was thinking about the increased violence of storms, not just wind, but storms that dump whole feet of water in a day or few. :/
no subject
Date: 30 Jan 2026 01:23 (UTC)no subject
Date: 30 Jan 2026 21:17 (UTC)