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Two in Tow & On The Go | Revisiting Picnic Park before it’s gone

Point Defiance Park’s Main Picnic Shelter playground in April 2026. Photo by Tonya Strickland.

With potential construction changes on the horizon, the days are numbered for a tucked-away Tacoma playground just over the bridge. And, it’s worth one last visit. 

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We’re talking again about the Point Defiance Park Main Picnic Shelter playground that I wrote about in November 2023. Check out my directions on how to get there, where to park and the closest restrooms at the bottom of this article.

I have a soft spot for this playground because it has original play equipment from 1996 … making its playset the oldest in Parks Tacoma’s system. It was also built by the same playground manufacturers as one of our favorite parks in California. Both were log-based construction with quirky features and a teamwork vibe. Playgrounds from the 90s feel a lot like stepping back into a different era of play. 

April 28 special election

Parks Tacoma — the urban recreation district that runs  40-plus parks, community centers and the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium — will ask those who live within its boundaries to weigh in on a bond renewal package in its April 28 special election. Voter materials say the bond would generate $155 million for more than 100 parks and rec projects. The ask comes as the district wraps up work from its previously approved 2014 bond, which created places like the Tacoma Foss Waterway playground at Melanie Jan LaPlant Dressel Park (aka “the tower park”) and the zoo’s newly remodeled Pacific Seas Aquarium. And now, the next round of upgrades is lining up. 

Parks Tacoma promotional material

Labeled Proposition 1, the bond proposal needs a 60% majority vote to pass. If approved, the district’s fix-it list would address what’s aging, replace what’s worn out, and build new things some say are needed the most.  The projects would roll out over the next six years.

A district press release about the bond prominently featured the picnic playground as a project already on that list — for demolition. A new “nature-themed playground and outdoor education area” would take its place, but at an entirely new location within Point Defiance Park. The new playground would move from behind the zoo’s outer boundary fencing to what would be Point Defiance’s newly expanded Mildred Street entrance on the southwest edge of the park. A new parking area and restroom would also take shape there.

I’m not here to say whether district voters should approve or deny the bond measure. I’m here to say that this spring marks a transition moment for the little picnic park. And if you don’t go see it now, you’ll probably never get to.

Picnic Park recap

If you’ve been reading along for a while, you might remember my column from November 2023 titled “A forgotten treasure at Point Defiance.” Tucked between the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium and the marina, this kinda-hidden playground sits up on a narrow bluff in the Main Picnic Area, surrounded by trees (of course) and overlooking Commencement Bay.

It’s not your shiny, crowded, modern playground with rubber surfacing and just-right Instagram angles. This is log-style construction, faded plastic, and the kind of space where kids invent their own rules because there aren’t a million signs telling them how to play. It’s a place where things are a little rough around the edges. Where not everything works. But it’s also one where imagination has to fill in the gaps which is some of my favorite kind of childhood play to witness.

Back when we first found this park, it felt like we had stumbled onto a secret. No crowds. Just space to explore. And, for this mama, it reminded me exactly of our old go-to playground in Paso Robles, California. 

Me on the playground trails, March 2026

I wrote about that one, named Barney Schwartz Park, three times for the blog. The playground there opened in 2002 and was replaced by 2018. I still remember being there two years before the revamp, with newborn Wyatt and toddler Clara on my very first solo outing as a mom-of-two.

As it turns out, both playgrounds were designed by BigToys, a PNW playground design firm that eventually became the Tennessee-based PlayCore brand. BigToys previously installed the SkyGame and the Turn Across – two play featured I got excited about in my 2023 column that were at both Point Defiance and Barney Schwartz. (I knew those parks looked similar!)

Barney Schwartz Park’s former playground with tony Clara and tinier Wyatt circa 2017.

Being decades old, both playgrounds were showing their age when we visited over the last decade. Plastic portions showed cracks. Climbing nets frayed. And then there was a sliding-monkey-bar track-thing that everyone thought had rusted over since it was hard to scoot across. (More on that later). As pieces of play equipment broke, park staff removed them and boarded up any gaps. And it’s no fault of BigToys – that’s just the natural life cycle of playgrounds and the wear and tear then see from years of kids using them.

Back in Tacoma, Point Defiance’s little picnic playground is no exception as it’s followed a similar path to its “park twin” in California with most of its features aging out or already gone. Still, some features are hanging on.

A March 2026 visit

When I visited the playground this week with Two In Tow adopted pal Greg Spadoni, the hand-powered scoot platform we featured in 2023 was gone. All that remained of it is the steel twist-and-crank track on its log-platform frame.

Before:

TurnAcross and platform in 2023

After:

The manufacturer called this contraption the “TurnAcross,” and it worked where one kid turned the lever to move another kid (or more) across the track on a wooden platform called a “gondola.” It was one of those rare playground pieces that taught teamwork. One kid cranked, another rode, and suddenly they were communicating, coordinating, figuring it out together. I’m really glad we documented it in action in 2023.

Elsewhere, when comparing pictures from then and now, a rope climbing wall at the picnic park is also gone. But – rejoice – some things remain. And this is where the “go now” part comes in.

The SkyGame

The SkyGame is still there. If you’ve never seen one, this particular piece of play equipment looks like an overhead rail system with plastic pods on a track.  Yes, the SkyGame is the very same “sliding monkey-bar track thing” I mentioned above that the California park had. The “rusty” one people couldn’t scoot across. Because … it wasn’t rust, you guys. Everyone was just doing it wrong. The pods are not meant to scoot. It’s a wild revelation, I tell you!

TurnAcross at Picnic Park in March 2026

I looked up the manufacturer’s project plans on Archive.org and read that kids move themselves across by pushing pod-like grips up and across the track. Think hand-over-hand “walking,” but upward. After the 2023 article ran, one of the picnic playground’s original designers even contacted me to talk about the play equipment from his former job. Cool! He also confirmed how the SkyGame was designed to work, and how also saw kids not using it correctly. But when a few figured it out, he was impressed because the feature is actually quite fun when folks get the hang out of. I tried it of course, and it’s physical, a little awkward, and just challenging enough to make the kids determined to see it through to the other end of the track. 

The heart of it

The features of these parks were part of a shift toward modular playground systems that have mostly been updated in today’s park world — but Point Defiance Park has one survivor. For now.

And that’s really the heart of it.

This isn’t about arguing for or against new playgrounds nor how to fund them. It’s about recognizing that we’re in a brief, in-between moment for the picnic park in all of its faded 90s glory. And that the your chance to experience the relic that is SkyGame, and whether you can master its upward-walking-hands test is now.

Here I am demonstrating such an experience. Kinda:

So if you’ve got a free afternoon, maybe skip the main attractions just this once and take the kids over to the Main Picnic Shelter. Look for that pop of blue slide peeking through the trees … and experience a little piece of playground history.

See ya out there!

Throwback pic

Ps. I’m not certain, but the picnic park site at Point Defiance’s Main Picnic Shelter sure looks like the same location early pioneers often gathered at for “basket lunch” socials and service club events in the early 1900s:

If you go:

What: Point Defiance Main Picnic Shelter (and playground).

Easiest way to get there: Use the Pearl Street Entrance into Point Defiance. Park the car, then climb the rustic stairs from the Point Defiance Marina at 5912 Waterfront Dr., Tacoma. On the map, the site is called the Main Picnic Shelter and with it, picnic playground sits on top of the bluff above the marina shop and Commencement Bay. 

Parking: Day-use parking at Point Defiance is free.

Restrooms: I think the nearest restrooms are back down the stairs and just outside the Marina shop. That’s the restroom we used.

Why: The playground is from 1996. Its days are numbered.