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Two In Tow & On The Go | Fast times on Tacoma’s Chutes and Ladders

Tacoma’s Slides and Stairs. Photo by Tonya Strickland

Picture this: You’re standing at the tippy-top of a bluff covered in the golden blades of prairie grass and dotted with earthy-green shrubs. The slope stacks gradually, higher and higher above the shoreline where a marina houses little white boats with triangle sails. The shapes anchor the waterfront scene that stretches out before you, a stunning vantage within the blue-green backdrop of Commencement Bay.

The hill’s rise stops at 60 feet, where it meets a paved walkway. You can stay up top, if you’d like, and walk westward toward Tacoma’s historic Point Defiance Park along the Wilson Way Bridge, a minimalist span that architects say, “cuts an elegant profile as it soars … above the landscape and provides an accessible moment of pause at the bow-shaped overlook.”

Or, perhaps you want to go down to the waterfront instead — but you want to get there fast. But how? Well, via slide of course!

Six slides, to be exact, all built right into the hillside. Each one shiny metallic and trimmed in pops of blue — inviting you to zoom down to ground level, where a square picnic table makes for the perfect snack spot or, beyond that, there’s the Breakwater Marina to explore.

Alternatively, you can also take the stairs — lots of ’em — for your descent if a derrière dash isn’t exactly your preferred way to travel. However, this route could slow you down considerably.

Fully committed to the thrill, you choose to slide down. You duck beneath the overhang bar and feel the smooth surface beneath you as you push off the top of the first slide, picking up speed as you go down, down, down. 

Clara and Wyatt love this place. It’s a set of slides and stairs that Metro Parks Tacoma staff call its “Chutes & Ladders.” They’re located at the start of the Wilson Way Bridge connecting Dune Peninsula Park with Point Defiance. We’ve been to the slides and stairs twice — once in 2022, when we still donned masks for the pandemic, and again this August.

A long climb back up

My little Sagittarius adventure seekers say the secret to going faster down a slide is to lean back at the start. You take their advice and the wind rushes past your face, your stomach flutters and before you know it, you’re at the bottom of the first slide. Delighted at the no-frills simplicity of good old fashion fun, you’re ready for five more! 

Once you reach the bottom, it’s a long climb back up — and, it’s via several sets of stairs. But, like the hill they’re built on, they stack gradually with platform breaks in between. So your calves shouldn’t burn too much. Just don’t forget to take in the beauty of the water on your journey upward. You’ll certainly need the breather!

And with that — you just experienced the fun and playful planning genius of the Seattle-based Site Workshop Landscape Architecture firm which, in 2019, debuted what locals have long called the missing pedestrian link between Ruston Way and Point Defiance Park, just above the boat launch.

Tagging along

We, of course, brought our new BFF Greg Spadoni on this easy day trip from Gig Harbor. After he collaborated on our super cool Nature Bingo column in July, it was clear we made a pretty good team. He has background knowledge on literally every local place ever and I have the small humans who never finish whatever they order at restaurants and who readily hand over their table scraps. So, in July, the kids and I sent Greg a list of places on our summer bucket list. Then he picked out which places he’d like to join us, and that’s how Gig Harbor Now’s local history columnist became Two In Tow’s summer adventure pal. Fun story, right?  So cool is this life with kids where friendships pop up in unexpected places.

Here’s what Greg had to say of the Chutes and Ladders experience:

“After going down the first slide and discovering that they have a short and effective deceleration lane at the bottom, which prevents you from landing on your butt like a doofus, it was great fun,” Greg said. “And when Clara showed me how to make a faster launch at the top using the overhead bar, it was even better.”

Greg also expressed dismay that the slide folks designed the structures with nice little butt-buffering pads at the end of each one.

“In my day, a hundred years ago, it was always dirt at the bottom of a slide,” he explained.

I’m sure the architects will email him soon enough with a great comeback, like: “Okay, Boomer. Now get off our lawn!”

Dirt or no dirt, the slides attraction is just one small (but awesome!) spot in the much larger, decades-long project to clean up the arsenic and lead contamination left by the former American Smelting and Refining Company (ASARCO). With a ton of government entities involved, the goal was to clean up and redevelop the site to make it safe again — then put an engaging public park in its place. That park, Dune Peninsula at Point Defiance, was designed to blend Tacoma’s industrial history with renewed hope and plans for an environmentally-minded community to come together.

That was really cool of everyone — environmental efforts are important. And we only have one Earth. But, admittedly, in featuring this adventure, I was initially less interested in the science and more into the investigation of another pressing matter – my nagging suspicion that the slides were actually made for … gasp ... grownups!

I mean, sure, they knew kids would definitely love the heck out of those slides. But I got the distinct feeling they weren’t the first consideration. (I may have been tipped off by Metro Parks Tacoma’s lively imagery of adults like this one living their best lives zooming down the slides all wild and free. Yep, nothing gets past me!) 

It took some Googling, but I found an interview from Nov. 13, 2019, that proves I’m not crazy (well, about this one thing anyway). Industry writer Teresa Bergen of Inhabitat.com interviewed Site Workshop principal Clayton Beaudoin on what inspired his team to incorporate the Chutes and Ladders slides into the project:

“… At the very top of the slope is an overflow parking lot which we imagined would be used by boaters. After launching their boats, they would have to drive their trucks to the top and race back down some 90 feet of elevation to their boats. Slides seemed like the fastest — and most fun — way to do it,” Beaudoin told the reporter. “We’ve been working hillside slides into many sloped projects, and since the Dune Peninsula was never intended to host a traditional playground, this seemed like a nice way to work something playful into the trail portion of project.”

Well, there you have it. Investigative reporting complete. Aren’t you so thankful to have a 20-year veteran reporter like me on the case?! I thought so. But, actually, there’s more. I have a few other fun facts to share.

At its heart, Tacoma’s Chutes and Ladders is inspired by Milton Bradley’s 1943 board game of the same name — or, perhaps, the game’s snakes and ladders origins of ancient India before that. And while that classic game is a delightful way to pass the time, its concepts playing out in real life are, arguably, even better as parents can finally snag a moment to appreciate the pretty views around them while their kids are joyfully sliding until the sun sets or they manage to drag their kids away via the promise of ice cream or pizza — whichever comes first.

The News Tribune, a 1980s Chutes and Ladders ad for Toys R Us

Looking up at Wilson Way Bridge from the base of the slides. Photo by Tonya Strickland

In fact, up top on the pedestrian bridge deck is touted as a chance to see Mt. Rainier on clear days or a place to sit at custom wooden benches resembling angular little boats. Further playing into the nautical nods to the area, Wilson Way even has a bow-shaped vista point off the bridge deck to look out over and brainstorm your next 5 days of school lunch prep – but at least you’re someplace pretty.

At the bottom of the slides, you’ll find the ferry landing, which has a public restroom in a short brick building located near the line of cars waiting to board the Vashon ferry before it crosses Commencement Bay.

As a bonus, the marina’s parking lot shares a hillside with the slides, and it’s decidedly less busy than Point Ruston’s touristy parking garage. It’s not as close as

We spied three deer roaming the near empty parking lot near the boat launch and slides

the garage, but on a no-rain day it’s still close enough to be worth a slightly longer walk over to the shops and eateries of Point Ruston.

FIND IT

Tacoma’s Chutes and Ladders

Located on the east end of the Wilson Way bridge and the boat launch parking lot.

And address you can put into Google Maps that will place you right by the slides is the Breakwater Marina at 5603 North Waterfront Dr., Tacoma.

See ya out there!

Ps. Here’s some cute pics of the kids (and me!) back in 2022 at ages 6 and 8 … and 39.

@two.n.tow

Tonya Strickland is a Gig Harbor mom-of-two and longtime journalist. Now in the travel and family niche, her blog, Two in Tow & On the Go, was named among the 10 Seattle-Area Instagram Accounts to Follow by ParentMap magazine. Tonya and her husband Bowen moved to Gig Harbor from California with their two kids, Clara (10) and Wyatt (8) in 2021. Find them on Facebook for all the kid-friendly places in and around town.