A little over a year ago Tacoma Metro Parks raised the price to launch a boat at the Pt. Defiance Launch to $8 on weekdays and $10 on weekends. This was like a 33% increase in price in one year. They justified the increase saying they were going to use the $ to improve the launching facilities and increase it's size from 3 ramps to 4...

Well they have done the "improvements". All they did was pave the area at the top of the ramp and add new floats.

Here's a link to a story in the Tribune about it...
http://www.tribnet.com/sports/outdoors/story/4887143p-4822682c.html

Also I stopped by today for a look and took some pics.

Sure the new floats look nice and will be easier to maintain. But this does nothing to solve the over crowding that we face in the peak months of June-Sept.

The ramp is one of the top money makers for Metro Parks... Don't be suprised if you see the prices raised again this year to another $2

You won't see a fix to the traffic solution anytime soon- it will always be a zoo at PD

There will be two more ramps added eventually. It all has to do with the Asarco clean up and its delay.
The whole hillside up to the go-carts is supposed to be removed and a parking lot and road will be put in its place. The new road will be for the launch so that boaters won't have to mix with the ferry traffic. JACK