South Sound

South Sound is in Puget Sound within Washington.

Regions

South Sound consists of Pierce County and Thurston County as well as Olympia, the state capital

Cities

Pierce County

• 1 Bonney Lake
• 2 Buckley Nearest town towards Sunrise Ridge/White River on the eastside of Mount Rainier and to Crystal Mountain. Town sits towards the northwest corner of Mount Rainier National Park.
• 3 DuPont
• 4 Eatonville Nearest town towards Paradise on the southside of Mount Rainier. The town sits towards the westside of Mt Ranier National Park.
• 5 Fife is an eastern suburb of Tacoma, consists primarily of businesses such as car dealerships, warehousing and industrial facilities, motels, drive-through smoke shops, quick-dining restaurants, a Native American casino (Emerald Queen); and various other highway-side businesses. Fife is contained within the Puyallup Indian Reservation.
• 6 Gig Harbor is a town with strong Scandinavian and Croatian heritage that has always influenced its nautical lifestyle and fishing-village character. Today specialty shops, creative boutiques, art galleries and waterfront restaurants add to its appeal and make it a wonderful get-away. It is also gateway town towards the Kitsap Peninsula from Tacoma in Pierce County.
• 7 Greenwater is a small town on the north side of Mount Rainier, near Crystal Mountain ski resort.
• 8 Lakewood
• 9 Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) is an amalgamation of the United States Army's Fort Lewis and the United States Air Force's McChord Air Force Base. It was merged in 2010 on recommendation of the Base Alignment and Closure committee. It is home to 62nd Airlift Wing and I Coprs.
• 10 Parkland is an unincorporated suburb of the city of Tacoma and is home to Pacific Lutheran University.
• 11 Spanaway
• 12 Puyallup
• 13 Steilacoom is the oldest incorporated town in Washington. It has 4 individual buildings and sites listed on the National Register of Historic Places, including the oldest Catholic Church in the state and the first Protestant Church north of the Columbia River.
• 14 Sumner
• 15 Tacoma is an hour drive south from Seattle on I-5, where you can find one of the largest zoos in the country, Point Defiance, as well as innumerable history and art museums. It is the county seat of Pierce County and the third largest city in Washington state behind Spokane.

Thurston County

• 16 Lacey
• 17 Olympia — capital of Washington state and county seat of Thurston County
• 18 Tumwater
• 19 Yelm

Other destinations

• 1 Mount Rainier National Park - premier natural site in Washington State
• 2 Anderson Island
• 3 Ketron Island

The following are in the remote southern region south of Purdy, in the Key Peninsula, a sub-region of the Kitsap Peninsula, in Pierce County. The communities in Key Peninsula are not incorporated as their own cities or towns:

• 4 Fox Island is a 5.2 square mile island off the south end of the Kitsap Peninsula. Semi-rural with bridge access; near Gig Harbor and across the "Narrows" from Tacoma.
• 5 Home — this quiet seaside community was once one of the more radical and socially progressive areas in the state.
• 6 Key Center — this small town is the largest on the Key Peninsula.
• 7 Lakebay — one of the last mosquito fleet era docks still in operation.
• 8 Longbranch — home to the southern-most marina on the Kitsap Peninsula.
• 9 Vaughn — once served by the mosquito fleet, this area is home to the Key Peninsula Museum.

Get in

By car

The major highways are I-5, running north-south from Tumwater through Olympia, Lacey, Fort Lewis, Tacoma and Fife in the South Sound, on its way towards Seattle. From Olympia US 101 branches from I-5 and goes west across Olympia and north towards Hood Canal through Shelton and Belfair. From where US 101 turns off towards Shelton the main east-west highway continues west towards Aberdeen as State Route (SR) 8.

By plane

• Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, (SEA ^IATA), is still the largest airport in the area with connecting flights to all regions of the U.S. and the world, especially with frequent transpacific routes but, also to Europe, Mexico and the Middle East as well. Competition is fierce and fares are low on service to the San Francisco Bay Area and Southern California with multiple airlines.

By boat

• Washington State Ferries (WSF) operates the following between Pierce and King Counties in the South Sound:

• Point Defiance in Tacoma and Tahlequah in the southern tip of Vashon Island. There are no additional ferries from Tacoma to Bremerton, Seattle or anywhere further north.

All Washington State ferries are for both vehicles and passengers.

• Pierce County Ferry is the other cross sound ferry connecting Steilacoom to Anderson Island and Ketron Island in the South Sound. This ferry is operated by Pierce County and is capable of carrying vehicles and passengers.

Get around

By car

The following branches from Interstate 5 (I-5) to reach additional areas of the South Sound and onto the Key or the Olympic Peninsula:

US Highway 101 begins in Olympia (exit 104 of I-5) and continues west and north around the west side of the Puget Sound through Shelton, Skokomish, Hoodsport and Brinon in Thruston and Mason Counties along the west side of Hood Canal. The original highway from I-5 continues west from the US Hwy 101 turn off towards Shelton continues west towards Aberdeen through Elma and Montesano, in Grays Harbor County, as State Route (SR) 8.

SR 512 goes east towards Puyallup via Parkland from exit 127 of I-5 in Lakewood. It goes around Puyallup and curves north towards Renton as SR-167.

SR-7 goes through South/East Tacoma as Pacific Hwy. It can be accessed from I-5 via Exit 133 or from SR-512 in Parkland (see above). It is the route that connects Tacoma towards Morton at US Hwy 12 through Mount Rainier.

SR-16 connects I-5 (exit 132) in Tacoma to Bremerton via the Narrows Bridge, Gig Harbor and Port Orchard.

SR-163 branches from SR 16 at exit 3 to go up towards the Point Defiance-Tahlequah (Vashon Island) Ferry on Pearl Street a local four lane surface street.

SR 167 goes east towards Puyallup along the south shores of the Puyallup River from Tacoma as River Road. It continues north from Puyallup towards Renton through Sumner, Pacific, Auburn, and Kent.

SR-410 branches from SR 167 north of Puyallup, up the hill onto Bonney Lake and to Buckley. From Buckley it curves south and goes by Mt Rainier at Sunridge before heading east towards Yakima. During winter the sections of SR-410 east of Buckley or Mount Rainer may closed due to high standing snow.

SR-18 connects exit 142 at I-5 in Federal Way to exit 22 at I-90 west of North Bend. It is a way to connect traffic from the South Sound towards Spokane in Eastern Washington without going through Seattle. It passes through Auburn, Maple Valley, Covington and Issaquah.

Traffic congestion is a major problem in the Puget Sound area on all freeways and major roads. Avoid traveling during rush hour if you can, particularly along I-5 and 405.

By public transit

Pierce Transit, ☏ +1 253 581-8000, toll-free: +1-800-562-8109. Operates local and regional public transit bus routes in Pierce County. Communities within the county served by this operator's routes include Fife, Gig Harbor, Lakewood, Puyallup, Steilacoom, Tacoma. Adult $2, youth $0.75 and is part of the regional Orca payment system.   The number of the route also tells you which area of the county it serves:

• Below 100 - Tacoma, Fircrest, Parkland, and University Place. The single digit routes (Routes 1-4) serve as cross-town routes between on longer routes across Pierce County via multiple stops.
• 100s - Northwest Pierce County: Gig Harbor. There are no public transit services beyond Gig Harbor to Key Peninsula or to Fox Island.
• 200s - South/Southwest Pierce County: Lakewood, Steilacoom and Joint Base Lewis McChord (JBLM).
• 300s - (Not used)
• 400s - East Pierce County: Puyallup, Bonney Lake, South Hill, Sumner and Auburn
• 500s - Connections to King County: Federal Way via Fife on routes 500 and 501. Sound Transit routes operated by Pierce Transit are 560, 574, 577, 578, 586, 590, 592, 594, 595, 596 to King County and within Pierce County.
• 600s - Connections to Thurston County: Intercity Transit Route 620 between Lakewood and Olympia is the only route in this category.

Sound Transit, toll-free: +1-888-889-6368. Has regional public transit routes including Sounder trains, Link light rail, and express bus in King County (e.g. Bellevue, Federal Way, Kent, Renton, Seattle), Snohomish County (e.g. Everett, Lynnwood) and Pierce County (e.g. Puyallup, Tacoma). (updated Jun 2023)

• Link Line T light rail operates in Tacoma, traveling traveling between Tacoma Dome Station and St Joseph Hospital in Hilltop via Downtown Tacoma and Stadium District. Plans are underway to connect this to Link Line 1 in Federal Way. Construction is underway to extend Link Line 1 from the Angle Lake Station in SeaTac to Federal Way.
• Sounder commuter rail service, operating weekday rush hours only, connects Seattle to Lakewood via Tacoma, Puyallup, Sumner, Auburn, Kent and Tukwila on the 'S' Line Train.
• Sound Transit has many convenient express bus routes that travel South (to Tacoma), East (Redmond, Bellevue), and North (Bothell, Lynnwood). Outside of the immediate Seattle-Bellevue area, many routes operate only during weekday rush hours. Check your schedules in advance, and beware of holiday service cutbacks. All Sound Transit routes have route numbers that are in the 500s.

Intercity Transit, ☏ +1 360-786-1881. Operates local buses in Olympia, Lacey, Yelm and Tumwater as well as a single express route (620) to Lakewood from Olympia. (updated Oct 2024)

Go next

• Seattle, Bellevue, Auburn, Federal Way, Kent, Renton, SeaTac and Vashon Island are in King County .
• The Kitsap Peninsula — west which consists of Gig Harbor, Bainbridge Island, Kingston, Port Orchard and Bremerton in the west. Most of the Kitsap Peninsula is in Kitsap County except Gig Harbor and Key Peninsula which are still in Pierce County.
• The Olympic Peninsula is centered around the Olympic Mountains and the Olympic National Park. To the east it is bordered by the Hood Canal which is one of the largest fiords in the United States. To the north it is separated from Canada by the Admiralty Inlet and to the west it is bordered by the Pacific Ocean. The closest counties towards Olympia in the South Sound are Mason and Grays Harbor Counties.
• the Southwest Washington region is primarily rural and forested stretching all the down to the Oregon state line at the Columbia River with Lewis County being the closest to the South Sound region.

• Centralia and Chehalis are the primary cities in Lewis County south of Olympia along the I-5 corridor and are also served by Amtrak trains passing through between Seattle and Portland.

• Columbia River Plateau is a region towards southeastern Washington, east of the Cascade Mountains from Southwest Washington. It is bordered by the Columbia River in the south which winds its way into the middle part of this region. Yakima County borders Pierce County from the east and is linked from Sumner in Pierce County on SR-410 along the east side of Mount Rainier. It is also accessed via US Hwy 12 from the I-5 corridor in Chehalis and on I-90/82 from the Seattle Metropolitan area via Ellensburg.

• Yakima is the county seat and the principal city in Yakima County. In additional there are other towns in Yakima County such as Grandview, Granger, Sunnyside, Toppenish, Wapato and Zillah.