I grew up in Portland, Oregon, and just about every other year, we would travel north to take in the sights and cultural attractions of Western Washington and the Puget Sound. Those excursions often took us through Tacoma. And no visit to this area would be complete without a pass through the nearby, sprawling, Point Defiance Park. Hundreds of acres large, this park contains wooded trails, event spaces, a zoo and other attractions.

Maybe it’s because the towering, moss-bearded trees and dense undergrowth embody what is most compelling and mysterious about the Olympic Peninsula, or maybe it’s just because I visited this area during the most impressionable years of my childhood, but Point Defiance is where I enjoyed some of the most idyllic moments of my youth.

In my mind, this park is permanently wedded to thoughts of a primeval Arcadian wonderland, home to dragons and pixies, or, at the very least, a heroic woodsman or two. Sometimes, even if I don’t have time to stop, I’ll take the Five Mile Drive that winds through old growth forest, and that can be enough to restore my spirits.

cheers,

Josh

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