When it’s wet and cold outside, there are plenty of ways to enjoy Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium and meet amazing animals!

Warm, Indoor Aquarium

The Pacific Seas Aquarium is indoors and heated and is open year-round. Guests can see hammerhead sharks, green sea turtles, a giant Pacific octopus and a variety of colorful fish and vibrant jellyfish among so many other marine animals.

Spend time at Tidal Touch Zone, where you can get a hands-on, up-close marine animal experience touching the same tidal creatures you’d find at low tide in Puget Sound. Feel the rough texture of sea stars, the spikiness of sea urchins and the hardness of crab shells. And make sure to get a “hug” from an anemone around your finger!

Plus, when you leave you can tell your friends you’ve visited the only combined zoo and aquarium in the Pacific Northwest!

Kids’ Zone

There is plenty to do at Kids’ Zone! Contact Junction (where the goats live at the Zoo) is fully covered and heated. The goats love attention and food and are waiting for you to come feed and touch them!

Nearby, you can explore  Animal Avenue where there are more covered areas. See fish, snakes, lizards, insects, frogs and meerkats.

The ropes are covered in the Kids’ Zone playground so let your kids climb like a lemur and get their wiggles out!

Covered Viewing Areas

Come face-to-face with a tiger or watch the lar gibbons hoot and swing between ropes in the fully-indoor Dayroom in the Asian Forest Sanctuary.

Step inside the Red Wolf Woods covered viewing area and see if you can find any wolves staring back at you. Plus, get a close look at a real wolf skull, pelt and tracking radio collar as you learn about what you can do to help red wolves from extinction.

See seals, sea lions, sea otters and puffins swim in the covered underwater viewing area at Rocky Shores. The sea lions love to follow you as you walk back and forth!

Staying Dry

Need an umbrella? Rent one at the front gate. Dry off and warm up inside the Plaza Café, where you can order lunch and a hot cocoa.

We look forward to seeing you soon, rain or shine!