Tacoma
Tacoma is a city that loves art, parks, and food - from museum visits to walks along Ruston Way and bar hopping on 6th Ave – Tacoma has it all. Since you’re here for a short time, we’ll make sure you’ll have a good time. Check out what this exciting region has to offer.
Mt. Rainier National Park
Mount Rainier National Park was the fifth national park to be created and was opened by William McKinley in 1899. It is immense, measuring 236,000 acres, while the mountain itself, the fifth highest in the United States, stands out from the Cascade Mountain Range at 14,411 feet.
Tacoma Nature Center
The Tacoma Nature Center is a 71-acre nature preserve with Snake Lake and its wetlands at its heart. The forested park is great for trail walks and wildlife spotting: there are cottontail rabbits, red foxes, raccoons, and black-tailed deer living here. The lake is home to wood duck, mallards, Canada geese, and western painted turtles.
Tacoma Art Museum
The Tacoma Art Museum was founded in 1935 and moved to its present location in 2003. Dedicated to collecting and showing Northwestern art, the museum owns over 4,500 items, including the largest collection of Dale Chihuly glass art and the largest collection of jewelry by Northwestern artists.
It holds impressive works by 19th-century European artists, such as Renoir, Degas, and Pissarro, and numerous amounts of Japanese woodblock prints from the 17th to the late 19th centuries.
Tacoma Museum of Glass
The striking Museum of Glass, a conical building designed by renowned Canadian architect Arthur Erickson, has been a Tacoma landmark since its construction in 2002. The museum is a wonderful destination for all who love glass art, and its highlight are the glass blowing demonstrations. These are held in the 145-seat amphitheater and are narrated.
Fort Nisqually Living History Museum
When the Hudson's Bay Company expanded to the west coast of North America, it was at Fort Nisqually that it based its fur trading and farming operations. Over the next few decades, local turmoil saw the fort fall into disrepair and finally close in 1869 as the fur trade waned. As part of Roosevelt's New Deal employment initiatives in the 1930s, the fort was restored; two of its original buildings, the keeper's house and the granary, are still standing.
Glassblowing Studio
The Tacoma Glassblowing Studio is a venture run by a husband-and-wife team and has been operating since 2006. Visitors to the studio can buy art from the beautiful pieces on display, admire the artworks, watch demonstrations of glassblowing, or enroll in classes. Classes fill up months in advance, but are worth the wait.
Owen Beach
Owen Beach is an ocean beach in Point Defiance Park. In the summer it is a marvelous place for swimming, sunbathing, shore fishing, dog-walking, or strolling along the paved seaside walkway.
Point Defiance Park
Point Defiance Park, an urban park located on the banks of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington, has much more to offer than a typical city park. It has a zoo, an aquarium, a boardwalk, a lovely ocean beach, an off-leash dog park, a boathouse and marina, hiking trails, and a stand of old-growth forest that contains 450-year-old Douglas firs.