Point Defiance Park: Route to Tacoma is a pedaler's paradise

Maybe it belies a Seattle-centric view, but Tacoma's Point Defiance Park is one of the best yet least-known chunks of parkland in Western Washington. It rivals Seward and Lincoln parks for water-side location, and dwarfs both in size. It's actually one of the 20 largest urban parks in the nation. Of course, Tacoma residents have for generations been fishing from its pier, bathing on its beaches, strolling its esplanade, admiring its old-growth trees or simply marveling at the views.

There's also a rose garden, a zoo and an aquarium. With almost 700 acres, there is a lot of park to explore. And for an ambitious and adventurous full-day tour, you can cycle there from West Seattle via Vashon Island.

Of course, you can easily spend a day meandering the back roads of King County's only ferry-served island, and many bike riders from the Seattle area do so. Joyce Price and Mike Davis had driven from their home in Kent and taken bikes aboard the ferry to sample the island, with no particular plan.

"On the way over this guy told us you gotta take the Westside Highway, and boy was he right," said Davis while waiting at the Tahlequah ferry terminal. "It is gorgeous."

Davis and Price completed a 26-mile loop which took them east, north and across the island to the Westside Highway. En route, they had encountered a group of Tacoma Wheelmen riders who were on a Tacoma-Vashon-West Seattle-Tacoma loop. Despite the warm summer weather, I saw only three other bicyclists, and all within the first three miles of the Vashon ferry terminal.

A word on those first couple of miles. Disembarking the ferry from West Seattle, bicyclists are confronted with one of the longest hills on the island: 103rd Avenue Southwest. My altimeter registered 345 feet in one mile. In other words, it's a grinder. In addition to the grade, the shoulder is narrow or non-existent, and the road is busy with ferry traffic. So when Burma Road Southwest loomed into my sweat-impaired line of vision at 1.3 miles from the terminal, I took it for both elevation and vehicular relief.

This is where the true island riding begins. Burma Road sweeps downhill, and then twists and turns its way playfully through the forest. The road is narrow, which makes for an intimacy with the scenery. The three bike riders I spotted here were matched by the only vehicles seen in the first 15 minutes. That's my type of riding statistic.

Soon enough, the woods and peek-a-boo views of Puget Sound give way to more pastoral scenes as the road becomes Westside Highway. Although Vashon has undergone the same development pressures as the rest of King County, the west side of Vashon has retained a rural feel. A man aboard an old gray tractor mowed a field of hay, and black sheep did some natural mowing at another field nearby.

Later, I paused at a roadside stand offering fresh vegetables and eggs. I peeked inside the outdoor refrigerator to admire bags of rich field greens; alas, no peas were left, and salad greens don't travel well by bike on hot days. So I headed along to catch the Tahlequah ferry, connecting Vashon's southern tip to Tacoma's Point Defiance.

As one of the smaller ferry terminals operated by Washington State Ferries, Tahlequah is nothing more than a pier and a shelter; no tolls are collected southbound. A line of about a dozen vehicles waited in the sun; the lucky drivers got an eyeful of Mount Rainier looming in the distance above the Tacoma skyline. It's a 15-minute crossing through the foaming wakes of countless pleasure craft before docking at Point Defiance. The park extends west from the ferry terminal, which makes it a short jaunt from ferry to park. As I discovered, a sunny Saturday brings out lots of visitors — some come for the zoo, others for the beach or to take the scenic five-mile loop road.

The volume of traffic diminished the pleasure of the loop ride initially but beyond the zoo and the beach, traffic thinned. With the cars gone, the rest of loop is perfect for a family bike ride.

There are several spots to linger at the views northward and westward to the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. There are ancient Douglas firs to enjoy. Something even better to marvel at is that the federal government, which once eyed Point Defiance as the location of a military base, never got around to using it and instead donated it to the City of Tacoma.

Gordon Black is a free-lance writer who lives on Bainbridge Island.