Black River Riparian Forest and Wetland — Attraction in Renton

I've been here about a dozen times now. I park on Naches Ave because that's where the directions took me. It's a beautiful, quiet slice of heaven in Renton. For all the times I've walked it listening to my audio book I've seen maybe 10 people. I'm usually the only person on weekdays and maybe one or two others on weekends. For all the comments about homeless I can only think they're outdated. While there are remnants of overnight camps, or rather there were, I think their inhabitants return at night only.

Recently the entire area was cleaned up and all the trash and old litter was removed. The trail was manicured nicely and it looks wonderful.

You can walk the full stretch and turn around, or loop on the train tracks. There are plenty of intentional openings in the fence. The graphiti wall across the tracks is awesome and always changing. Sometimes you'll see someone tagging the wall and they're always friendly.

I recommend this place for runners, walkers, dog owners and anyone looking for a nice getaway. Come prepared for misquitos. They love the shaded areas where puddles don't...

I was looking forward to catching a few unique snakes, turtles and frogs, to get high def pictures of them but this area was entrenched with homeless camps. Tarps for roofs and just trashed with massive amounts of waste and litter. I also found a camp that contained a lot of various stolen items. Women should not go jogging here alone unless they have a very large attack dog. I was approached by 3 different individuals who attempted to intimidate me and acted territorial. Shame on you Washington for calling this a protected riparian habitat. Definitely doesnt deserve its greenzone...

This is a really nice park, among those that are attempts and letting the land reclaim itself. It's to some extent just left alone, and left to do whatever it's going to do. Very little human intervention by way of watering or mowing or any sort of planting or tending. That's its draw. The few trails are for the most part empty, with the exception of the men there who are looking for each other, but seem to have difficulty in finding each other. That's why I go back, to hopefully get found by one or more of these guys, and/or find a few to meet and greet while I'm there...