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Lake Sawyer Regional Park is a sweet quiet park in Black Diamond for locals and visitors alike. A dense network of trails borders Ravensdale Creek and Cranberry Slough, though — interestingly — the titular lake is almost entirely surrounded by private land. The park wraps around an inlet in the southeast corner of the lake, featuring a large flat grassy meadow and five or six lakeside benches and picnic tables. The park is maintained both for recreation and habitat restoration.
The parking lot has a large covered kiosk with natural and practical information about the park, with brochures describing that Lake Sawyer and adjacent Frog Lake, a large wetland, are part of the Green/Duwamish River Watershed. Interpretive signs along the main trail offer more information about the park, which is home to a pair of bald eagles, coho salmon (which spawn in Ravensdale Creek), river otters, and frogs. Lake Sawyer is the 4th largest lake in King County, covering 300 acres.
The wide main trail leaving the parking lot, which is wheelchair accessible with small gravel, slopes gently down to the lake and continues for about ¾ of a mile in total before reaching private property. Much of the trail network also abuts private land. Where the border exists, the trees are signed or there’s a fence, but visitors should have the detailed park map (made available thanks to Lake Sawyer Park Foundation) with them to avoid accidental trespass.
Options to extend your walk off the main trail include a loop starting on Creekside West. Creekside West is accessed with a right turn off the main trail shortly after it crosses Ravensdale Creek. The turn is unsigned, but there are several Creekside West signs later along the trail, which hugs the creek. There are two or three bridges across the creek at various points, which connect to a trail paralleling the east side of the creek, Creekside East and Jack Leg, allowing for a loop hike of distances ranging from a half-mile to 2 miles back to the main trail. Creekside West and Jack Leg connect with several more miles of trails.
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