Road is impassable about 2.5 m from Kachess Campground due to thick snow covering road

Great hike and adventurous trail to Rachel lake- intermittent snow piles on trail, mostly easy to cross and not steep, and then continuous snow last 1/4 mile; many stream crossings so gave up on keeping shoes dry, stream covers trail at times for the last mile; lake is still frozen and beautiful! Avalanche lilies abounding. Poles are a must; Didn’t really need microspikes but did use them for the snowy descent .

Cannot get to trailhead by car. Walked about 3 miles with micro spikes to get to trailhead. A little difficult to find trail once at trailhead but did find and walked about a mile in. Snow on trail but fine with microspikes. Didn’t bring enough water for the hike in and out so turned around.

Snowshoeing from Kachess snopack, thru Kachess campground, and along the forest service road to the Rachel Lake trailhead. While I did manage to miss major weather conditions later in the day, the sky was getting quite dark and a bit spooky when I turned around at the Rachel Lake TH, several hours from snopark parking. There was some drizzle for half an hour.

Lots of beautiful scenery across Kachess Lake, and the river along the FS road, but this route takes quite some time in the snow. Plan to start early.

11.9mi, 440m ascent

Kachess Lake snopark to Kachess campground, west on NF4930 toward the Rachel Lake trailhead, as well as a bit of time in the campground looking at the lake.

First to arrive in the snopark this morning.  Fortunately the plows had been active ~30min before so Kachess Lake road was straightforward (easier than I90).

The "Gold Creek snopark" trails are NOT GROOMED at this time and had 2--4ft of powder.  Several snowmobiles arrived later so there are some easier tracks on Kachess Lake road past the parking, and heading up the hill past the campground entrance.  Two persons' worth of snowshoe tracks (ours) proceed up NF4930 (estimated 0.5--1mi), and into Kachess campground toward the boat ramp to the first reasonable view of the lake.

6.5mi, 350m ascent, max 85m/km.