Fox Island East Wall

Fox Island East Wall lies off Toy Point on the southeast end of Fox Island, reached in practice from the water rather than from the road. A park at the end of Ozette Drive historically offered shore access, but the trail from the parking area down to the water runs several hundred yards of steep grade, and most divers now come in by boat. The wall itself begins in about 5 to 10 feet of water at low tide and drops sheer to 30 or 40 feet; the substrate flattens at the base, then a slope leads down to a series of fingers and smaller walls in about 50 feet, with the bottom walls ending around 70 to 80 feet.

Community write-ups regard the East Wall as one of the best wall dives in Puget Sound, and Bandito Charters lists it as a featured intermediate site with abundant sea life on the sandstone-and-clay wall structure.

Fox Island East Wall is a rocky reef biome by way of that exposed sandstone-and-clay wall structure, whose ledges shelter documented wolf eels and giant Pacific octopus. Scuba is the working use, and all dives require timing against the slack at the north end of the Tacoma Narrows, where the flow calms about 1 hour before slack itself. Getting the timing wrong risks being swept into South Sound.

Access is boat-only in practice, from the Fox Island Bridge ramp or by charter. 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.