The East Wall
Fox Island East Wall
Cross the Tacoma Narrows Bridge and take Highway 16 out of Tacoma.
for 2.0miles before exiting at the Olympic Drive NW / Fox Island
Exit. Turn left onto Olympic Drive NW from the exit ramp stoplight;
follow Olympic Drive NW over Highway 16 onto 56th Street NW and
then onto Fillmore Drive NW. Turn left at a "T" onto Wollochet
Drive NW, drive for 1.1 miles and turn right onto 40th Street NW.
In 0.7 mile, turn left onto 70th Avenue NW and follow to a tee.
Turn right at the tee onto 32nd Street NW (becomes Ford Drive NW)
and follow Ford Drive NW to the Fox Island Bridge.
Cross the bridge onto Fox Island, drive 3.1 miles from the bridge,
then turn right onto 9th Avenue. In 0.2 mile, turn left onto Kamus
Drive, and then follow the main road around a curve to the right
onto Island Boulevard. Island Boulevard soon becomes Mowitch Drive,
which in turn will curve to the right onto 14th Avenue. The road
ends a short distance from where 14th Avenue becomes Ozette Drive.
There is a restroom in the parking lot. $1 parking fee, bring some dollar bills. The path to the water is to the right and behind the restroom and down some stairs.
See NW Shore dives for more directions or information.
A small cobblestone wall with a sloping bottom and a deeper wall below. Current is constantly eroding this site. It appears to be somewhat barren at first but with some looking around you turn up unusual stuff. Going South there is primarily the wall and slope with occasional small to large boulder. North has more current sculpted ledges. Look for critters hiding in the cracks and staying out of the current. With some good poking we can usually turn up at least one octopus. There is also a Wolf eel den on the wall if you can find it.
Current Table: The Narrows. Time corrections for Toy Point, Fox
Island:
Minimum inshore current before flood: -56 minutes
Minimum inshore current before ebb: - 65 minutes
Strong current. Located in the Tacoma Narrows this is a current swept site. Occasional fishing boats. There is a fishing pier to the north so line hazards are possible.
Challenging walk down to the water. Tougher back up. Careful of footing on the muddy path with the heavy load.