Day Island Wall

Day Island Wall lies at the south end of the Tacoma Narrows, tucked against the western shore of Day Island itself, a small residential island reached by a two-lane bridge from University Place. The public shore-access strip on the west side of the island is only about 30 feet wide, but from that narrow opening a diver drops onto an expansive wall of sandstone and clay. Above it sits a sand-and-cobblestone shelf. The wall itself starts around 50 feet, runs vertical in most stretches, and drops to a working depth of 80 to 110 feet, with ledges, fissures, and holes cut into its face that serve as animal dens.

There is no human landing story on this piece of shore, just a geologic one. The Tacoma Narrows funnels the tidal exchange of the lower sound through a narrow constriction, and the current has carved the soft sandstone and clay of the Day Island bench into a vertical face. The result is one of the finer South Sound shore-accessible walls, though the site's reputation among local divers rests as much on its depth and current profile as on its structure.

Day Island falls into the rocky reef biome by way of that exposed sandstone-and-clay wall. Its ledges shelter documented residents including wolf eels and giant Pacific octopus. Scuba is the site's use. Timing is not negotiable. Diving is considered safe only on minor tidal exchanges where current does not exceed 2.4 knots on either side of slack, and the best entries begin about 30 minutes before the slack that precedes an ebb. The along-wall current here flows opposite to the midchannel flow, so the reversal at slack has to be understood before a diver enters.

Access runs from Highway 16 to Jackson Avenue, south to 27th, then left, downhill, and across the two-lane Day Island bridge to the fenced public access on the west side of the island. Parking is on residential streets only and gets very tight on weekends. No marine preserve overlays the site; Marine Area 13 rules are enforced instead: rockfish retention is prohibited year-round, and lingcod spearfishing is permitted only from May 21 through June 15 at a maximum size of 36 inches and a daily limit of 1.