tacoma nature center

I love the family friendly atmosphere, and what is best of all, you can make a visit to the Nature Center a full day event, with the trails, the center itself, and the pond. Great place!

Local centrally located nature and educational facility in the heart of Tacoma. You don't have to travel far to get a "hature fix".

Great tree cover which encourages bird viewing. We also found a Hummingbird on her nest in a tree above the walking trail!!!! Slow down and really take in the space- you will find all kinds of special "nuggets"!

The Nature Center is a fun place to visit. It has trails to walk on that are different lengths. I like going there very early in the day. You can sometimes catch a glimpse of a Great Blue Heron taking off. Rain or sun, it is a fun place to visit and get a little exercise.

My 2-year old loves visiting the Tacoma Nature Center at Snake Lake. There are indoor and outdoor play areas. The indoor space has a small display of turtles, snakes, frogs, and insects. Plus, there are books, puzzles, animal costumes, and a big wooden play tunnel. The outdoor play area has a slide, lookout station, climbing walls and a water pump. There are also a few easy trail options. They also have a small gift shop and preschool on-site.

Love this center. Friendly staff. TURTLES. lol. My toddler loves it. Tons of trails to walk. A fantastic kids area with slides & beautiful play areas. I go every few days. AND IT"S FREE. But please do donate or buy something cute from the shop to support it's ongoing beauty.

We love coming here. We can take the stroller on the paths. The playground is great for the kids, ours are 2 - 9 and they love playing in the water, building dams and the pump, Inside, there are costumes to try on, and the bee colony is the kids favorite. My grandson chose visiting the Nature Center again, for his last day in Tacoma.

Tacoma Nature Center is a fantastic place to take children to exercise their mind and body and tire them out! Typically we start with a short "hike" on the loop around the lake (either going to the first or second bridge depending on how enthusiastic my kids, age 2 1/2 and 4 1/2, are). It's a wide dirt path, and is pretty level around the lake. My kids love looking for water turtles from the bridges. Then we go to the natural playground area called Discovery Pond which my kids love (especially pumping water to make a stream and climbing in the log style tube). It's a big loop around a pond which has a slide, tree house, logs of various sizes for climbing in, on and through and a stone climbing wall. I like that it has just one entrance/exit to the playground area, so its easy to let the kids run and not worry about them getting out. To round the day out we typically go into the visitor center to see the turtles and other reptiles, then play with the stuffed animal puppets. There are a lot of activities for kids (puzzles, drawing items, puppets, games, etc) enough to easily spend an hour in the visitor center on a rainy winter weekend.