Point Defiance's Trolls Outlast Zoolights by Three Weeks

Boge stands outside the front gate of Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium. Like the other trolls in Thomas Dambo's TROLLS: A Field Study, he is built from reclaimed fallen branches, scrap wood, pallets and twigs. He is one of four trolls at the zoo and one of twelve split between the zoo and its sister park, Northwest Trek Wildlife Park in Eatonville. The exhibition opened Oct. 15 and runs through Jan. 24, 2027.

The trolls and Zoolights overlap for most of the season, but they end on different dates. The holiday lights end Jan. 3. The trolls stay three weeks longer, and only three of the zoo's four can be seen at night. So the best Point Defiance visit this winter happens in daylight, and the Loop Trail that Parks Tacoma finished last summer gives that visit a better route than the park has had in years.

The calendar that sets the order

Two seasonal events overlap at the zoo this winter, and their dates decide what you can see when.

The trolls sit on both sides of the lights season. The weeks before Thanksgiving and the three weeks after New Year's are the only stretches when a zoo visit is entirely about the sculptures, the animals and the grounds. Admission or membership covers the trolls. Tacoma Weekly reported that all of them can be seen at no extra cost beyond park entry.

Zoolights shows three of the four

The zoo's four trolls are Boge, Larke, Poppy and Birch. During Zoolights, the zoo advertises Boge, Poppy and Birch among the lights. Its trolls page says anyone who wants all four should plan a daytime visit. The one you'll miss after dark is Larke, the "Mask Troll," who stands near the polar bear habitat.

For an early start, the zoo sells a Wild Zoo Tour that covers the exhibition before opening time. It starts with a photo of Boge outside the gate, then goes on to Larke, Poppy and Birch. The zoo notes that it will be open to the public by the time the tour reaches the last troll. Dog owners have a daytime option too. On select Dog Days, the zoo invites guests to bring their dogs and stop at the trolls along the way.

Each sculpture has a QR code that leads to its story and the materials it was built from, according to Tacoma Weekly. Those plaques are easier to read in daylight than under a tunnel of holiday lights.

The daytime visit now starts on a new trail

A daytime trip also gets you the rest of Point Defiance Park, which changed this year. Parks Tacoma finished Phase II of the Point Defiance Loop Trail in July 2026, and the road and trail have reopened fully. The new section completes a 1.6-mile loop kept apart from the roadway. It connects Wilson Way Bridge, the Pagoda, the zoo, the Environmental Learning Center and Owen Beach.

The route starts just past the Pagoda and runs along the zoo side of the park to the stop sign near the musk ox enclosure. From there it takes over the right-hand lane of what used to be a two-lane stretch of Animal Loop Road and continues toward Owen Beach, where it meets the pedestrian and bike access rebuilt in 2022. The News Tribune described the finished trail as ADA-accessible. It also reported that the July 31 opening included a ribbon-cutting behind the Pagoda and a guided walk down to Owen Beach.

Two practical details matter for a winter visit. With the construction detours ended, cars can once again reach every part of the park from both the Pearl Street and Mildred Street entrances. The Outer Loop of Five Mile Drive stays closed to motor vehicles permanently. The Loop Trail adds walking and cycling access along the inner corridor. It does not reopen the outer road to cars.

Put together, the trail and the trolls make an afternoon plan that a Zoolights evening can't match:

1. Park near the Pagoda and take the Loop Trail toward the zoo.
2. Find Boge at the front gate, then go inside for Larke near the polar bears, plus Poppy and Birch.
3. Continue on the trail past the Environmental Learning Center and down to Owen Beach.
4. On a lights night, come back to the zoo at dusk with a timed Zoolights ticket you bought online in advance.

The other eight are in Eatonville

The zoo's four trolls are a third of the exhibition. Northwest Trek has the other eight: Valle, Kirse, Lilnut, Hasse, Taks, Anja, Wilde and Bignut. The zoo's announcement calls Taks the troll leader of the group. In Dambo's story, the trolls have come to study humans.

The two parks have tied the visits together with a discount. After buying zoo admission online or at the gate, ask for a Troll discount coupon at check-in. It takes $10 off the daytime front-gate general admission rate at Northwest Trek for up to five tickets. The coupon has to be redeemed at Northwest Trek's front gate, can't be used online and doesn't combine with other discounts, group visits or special events.

Most of the Northwest Trek trolls are on a self-guided route. Valle is the exception. According to Tacoma Weekly, Valle stands in the free-roaming animal area, and the only ways to see it are the tram tour, the wild drive tour or the keeper adventure tour. In the same article, zoo and Northwest Trek spokesperson Tessa Miller called Valle "the only one that shares an animal habitat." She said cameras had been set up in the hope of catching mountain goats climbing it or bison smelling it. She also pointed to Bignut, hidden with his trap along the Triangle Loop nature trail, as "the one that you have to hunt for the most."

Miller told Tacoma Weekly that the parks had been looking for a traveling exhibit when this one became available. "It was just the perfect timing that there was an opening for the trolls to come at this time," she said. Dambo's trollmap.com maps his trolls and lets visitors keep a log of the ones they've found.

These twelve are also separate from Dambo's longer-standing Northwest work. Tacoma Weekly lists Pia the Peacekeeper on Bainbridge Island, Oscar the Bird King on Vashon and Jakob Two Trees in Issaquah among his Pacific Northwest trolls. Several of those came from the 2023 NW Trolls: Way of the Bird King project, which the NW Trolls site says was built over seven weeks that summer. The Field Study trolls are visiting for one season only.

If the lights are still on your list

Zoolights is in its 39th year, presented by BECU, with more than 2 million lights. Its regular displays include the giant Pacific octopus, the Narrows Bridges, the Flame Tree, the Seahawks tree, a tunnel of lights and a hidden Sasquatch. The aquariums are closed during the event, and the animals are asleep. Parking is free. It goes ahead rain or shine, and tickets are not refunded. Every visit needs a timed ticket bought online.

What you pay depends on when you go, and the cheaper window comes first:

Last season's equivalent prices were $14 and $20 for general admission and $7 and $10 for members. Each tier went up by $2 for the public and $1 for members. The early-season weeknight discount is still the biggest saving on the calendar. Thursday, Dec. 10, is the last night it applies. After that, every night costs the weekend price until the season ends.

Some nights are set aside for particular groups:

• Dog Nights on Dec. 1, 2, 8, 9 and 15 and Jan. 3. Each ticket covers one adult and one dog. Quantities are limited, and they're sold only online through the zoo's Dog Nights page.
• Scout Nights on Nov. 30 and Dec. 7, when scouts and scout leaders pay $14.
• Sensory-Friendly Night on Jan. 9, with adjusted lighting and quieter music. Tickets are $16 general and $8 for members.
• Groovy Goats, Zoolights Edition, a private holiday encounter with the zoo's goats before a walk through the lights. Space is limited.

The Sensory-Friendly Night also falls after the main run ends Jan. 3 and while the trolls are still in place until Jan. 24.

For a household that wants both events, the order is straightforward. Do the trolls and the Loop Trail by day, before Thanksgiving or after New Year's. Book a Monday-through-Thursday Zoolights night no later than Dec. 10. The full set of four trolls stays on view until Jan. 24, so a daytime visit in mid-January is still possible after the lights are packed away.

The Narrows Bridges show up in lights at the zoo, and across that water is where I live and work. If you're weighing a weekend at Point Defiance against everything else the South Sound puts on this time of year, Julia Runyan and The Runyan Group are always glad to share what we know about this side of the water. Let's Connect.