Salmon Beach is a somewhat "hidden" "artist" colony located just north of the Narrows Bridge in Tacoma. Google map it by clicking here. I say hidden because the road that leads to it is private and also because the community is at the bottom of a large embankment. Getting to it requires a quarter mile hike in and then navigating around 200 nearly vertical stairs. I say artist because it was the artistic spirit that originally created this unique living space. The community has 104 cabins, though some look more like mansions than cabins. Salmon Beach was started as a fishing camp back in 1914 and has evolved over the years into its present day permanency. It has survived depressions, tsunamis, mudslides, and earthquakes. Moonshine also flowed down here during prohibition. Today, artists and yuppies co-exist at Salmon Beach, though there seems to be some tension. Some of the cabins are reclaimed collections of eccentricities, while others look more like they were thrown up right out of the belly of suburbia.
