Trailhead is a little confusing from Longmire. If you go East from the inn there is a sign for the Wonderland - this connects to the Rampart loop and takes you counter-clockwise. You can also cross the street from the inn and go left on the Trail of Shadows and this connects you to the Rampart loop going clockwise.

The distance is the same either way but the ranger at the museum advised going clockwise. The far side of the ridge itself is still unpassable due to snowcover on the shady side. If you go clockwise you at least get to the ridge and see the view, then come back down. This is about 4 miles roundtrip but I believe you're getting a steeper climb this direction, so if you're spring training and have 35 lbs you will be pleasantly surprised by the challenge.

Snow started appearing at about 3600', maybe another 1/4 mi from the ridge. Postholing wasn't too bad and by now the trail is coming out, though it is soggy and slippery. Once you start going back down and get to the other side of the ridge, you're in shadow and the trail is completely snowcovered.

Terrain here is steep and unstable with no runout or foliage, so best advice is to find a rock, have lunch, soak in the view, and turn around until it melts out.

  

Today was perfect to hike anywhere in the park. The mtn was out in full the whole day with a satisfyingly red glow at sunset. Beginnings of Rampart are clear til about 1/3rd way up old slush slows down the eager. Nothing a pair of Yaktraks or Microspikes can't handle (good to have on the way down with the iced over snow in placed.) Snowshoes went on at the top of the loop towards Pyramid Creek Camp. Pretty sloppy and deep snow taking a leg occasionally. In need of a fresh layer of snow.

This is a day late and a dollar short- well, not a dollar so much as photos. I have no pictures to post because I forgot to charge my camera battery. And what a day to forget! It was the last sunny day before the parade o' storms started running roughshod over the Pacific Northwest. There was a fair amount of early season snow, rather like confectioner's sugar, but due to the work of a tidy team of snowshoers, we didn't have to put our snowshoes on, though we carried them anyway. The snow was heavy on the trees and created some soggy and windy avalanches as the sun loosened big piles from the branches and they came whooshing down.

The trail is steep on the way up, with peekaboo views until about 1.8 miles, where a viewpoint sign is still visible and pointed us toward a railing. There is a nice view of the valley here, but none of the mountain. The Inn and other structures look so- well, vulnerable from this angle, as if one watery burp from a suddenly heated glacier would wipe them all out.

We continued on the loop, soon encountering a face to face view with the Big Guy, somber and grey with some impressive spindrift off the face of Gibraltar Rock. Triple lenticular clouds hovered nearby as a portent of crummy weather to come.

The trail drops into the forest with more big trees wearing giant snowbeards welcoming the unwary to travel beneath. We had seen only one person on the way up, but ran into a family of three on the way down. The woman asked whether views improved, and we told her no. She said they weren't very prepared anyway, which the man quickly corrected: "We're fine. We don't need anything." As in, waterproof pants instead of jeans for him, some spare gear for all, etc would have been helpful. They did turn around behind us, and eventually passed us at the bottom.

Contrary to past encounters like this, it turned up the woman and teenage son, more like each other than they were related to the man, had a whale of a time and were smiling, talking and laughing all the way down- no miserable family scene with these two. "What a beautiful walk!" the woman exclaimed when she passed. The man remained quiet, perhaps because his feet were wet and cold as he had sport walking shoes on.

By Longmire, we ran into one of the now notorious Cascade red foxes that hang about the roads for handouts. Wary but hungry for a bologna sandwich or granola bar, it danced around, staring at some young girls who were confused by its persistence but determined to get a picture. When they got their photo, we explained they are being fed and hanging around roads where they would be killed by cars or rangers if they bit anyone. We then chased the lovely little creature into the woods. The girls were disgusted that people would endanger such an animal - why couldn't we leave wild things wild? Why do we have to kill everything we love? Good question, we think.

Going up from the Shadows Trail was mostly clear with a few patches of snow near the top. At the top of the ridge snow quickly turns from patchy to deep and packed. 1'-5' deep in places. Very slick in places. We only had hiking boots which made things quite interesting... traction devices definately recommended. Deep snow/packed snow continued about half way down the Wonderland Trail as well.