Sammamish sits on a plateau east of Lake Sammamish, HistoryLink writes, with a number of small lakes on and around it. OFM’s April 1, 2026 estimate counts 68,500 residents, up from 67,455 in the 2020 Census. Its neighborhoods expanded as the plateau developed during the late twentieth century.
Lakes on the plateau
Pine Lake Park is a 19-acre wooded park on the shore of Pine Lake, one of the two city parks with a designated swimming area; the city posts lifeguards there during specific summer weeks. It began as a private resort in the 1910s, became a King County park in the mid-1960s and passed to the city when Sammamish incorporated.
Beaver Lake Park covers 83 acres, according to the city. The lake side has swimming access, a large meadow and two rental facilities; the athletic side has three sports fields, a playground, a picnic shelter and an off-leash dog park. A forested section with trails runs through the middle.
On Lake Sammamish
Sammamish Landing Park is an 8-acre site on the eastern shoreline of Lake Sammamish, with three beach areas, two docks and a picnic shelter. The City of Sammamish identifies Sammamish Landing as its only publicly owned Lake Sammamish shoreline property within city limits. The East Lake Sammamish Trail runs through the park, and interpretive signs recall the railroad that once ran along it.
Sammamish Commons
Sammamish Commons is a 25-acre park in the middle of Sammamish, the city says, with an upper and a lower section connected by an accessible trail. The Upper Commons has a skate park, a basketball court and play equipment, alongside Sammamish City Hall and the Sammamish Library. The Lower Commons has a community garden, a native plant garden, a looped trail, picnic shelters, a playground and a spray park.
From mill town to a city
The name is Snoqualmie. HistoryLink writes that, according to members of the Snoqualmie Tribe, it joins “Sqawx,” their name for Lake Sammamish, with “abs,” a suffix for the people of a place. Martin Monohon settled on the plateau in 1877, and the mill town of Monohon formed after a railroad was completed along the eastern shore of Lake Sammamish in 1889. For much of the next century the plateau was woods, chicken and dairy farms and lake resorts.
Development reached the plateau in the 1960s and accelerated in the final decades of the twentieth century. Sammamish became a city on August 31, 1999.
Living here
Mornings at Pine Lake, afternoons on the Beaver Lake trails and a lakeshore beach at Sammamish Landing make the plateau feel like its own place. Chase Hedin is a Managing Broker who works out of Woodinville. If Sammamish is on your list with Issaquah or Redmond, or you’re thinking of selling, reach out anytime. Start a conversation · What’s my home worth?