Preface: Bring a Handsaw. Remove small switches! The Big Creek Trail is under relentless repair twice a week by the Mount Rose Trail Crew (bless their ancient hearts).

The road is fine out to the junction and parking at the trailhead behind the gate was fine.

The trail clockwise or anti-clockwise is fairly clear for the first mile. Further in is rife with snow fallen trees (you can't call them blowdowns since the weight of the snow is what brought em down). In many cases the tree fell downhill and the root ball took the trail with. Consider the trail an obstacle course.

The trail connecting the Big Creek Loop to the Lower Ellinor Trailhead and also the nearby lookout is surprisingly fairly free of significant tree fall.

The Lower Ellinor Trailhead parking lot had 20 inches of snow touched only by someone who postholed to there and a pair of ski marks.

Many of the roads to the other river trails in the SE Olympics are closed with snow but the road to the Big Creek campground from Hoodsport is clear of snow. The campground still has lots of snow but the Big Creek loop trail has portions of trail that are snow-free. There were many blown down trees across the trail, however a trail crew was working on the trail today and cleared about 1.3 miles and plans to return on Thursday and next Monday to clear the whole trail. I hiked the first 2 miles clockwise with my dog until the blow downs became too hard to navigate through with a leash. We retraced our steps and logged 3.9 miles. I tried one of the restrooms and found it was open. We saw mossy trees, lovely forest duff trail, slidey snowy patches, sun shining through the trees in the mist, and the beautiful Big Creek. In addition to the work crew, I saw about four pairs of hikers - two with dogs. It felt surprisingly cold in the campground but was warmer (and more clear of snow) at higher elevation. 

Driving up to Big Creek, the road is clear and snow-free but we saw obvious signs of the recent wind and snow events.  The road has big banks of snow from plowing on both sides and a lot of snow in the woods along the drive up.  We arrived at 11 to a full lot (later discovered this was a work party working to clear the trail).

the work party informed us that they had cleared 1 mile of trail going counter clockwise and they had cleared almost to the loop junction going clockwise.  The remainder of the loop is a mess of downed trees, branches and snow in the trail.

we did talk to a couple who had completed the loop counter-clockwise and they also emphasized how difficult the trail was with them getting lost and post-holing due to the many downed trees.

with these reports in hand, we turned back and descended the way we had come up.  From Dicks Rock up there is intermittent snow (we used spikes on the way down as a convenience but could have done it without the spikes)

Arrived around 10:00am and managed a get a spot along the road across from the campground entrance.  There was enough room for about eight or nine cars to park and stay off the road.  The campground area was covered with snow.  This was the first time hiking the Big Creek Loop and we missed the "start" of the trail by the shelter but found the trail near the tent camping area.  As a result we ended up hiking the loop counter clockwise.  For the first half mile or so the trail snow only covered part of the trail and some downed trees and branches.  For the next mile the debris on the trail is pretty consistent.  You will find yourself climbing over logs and through branches for a fair amount of the hike.  As you get further along the snow gets deeper and covers the whole trail.  I had micro spikes with me but never put them on, poles were helpful but not necessary. My son did the whole hike without spikes or poles, with had a dog on a leash pulling him along and managed to stay upright.  Most of the bridges had about a foot or so of compacted snow/ice on them but weren't difficult to cross with the handrails.  A couple of them had been hit with falling trees but seemed to be solid.  The middle section of the trail was snow covered but less downed trees.  After the halfway point, beyond the Mt. Elinor trail junction the trails becomes a little bit of an obstacle course with all the downed trees.  Nothing was impassable but anyone considering this hike needs to be aware that you will be climbing under, over and around trees.  There were a few times when I broke through the snow past my knee while navigating around the downed trees.  For the last 3/4's of a mile (or first, if you are going clockwise) was pretty much snow free without much debris on the trail. Even with the obstacles it was great to get out into the woods.  There were a couple of people that turned around after hearing about the trail conditions and another group that were hiking sneakers.  I imagine their feet were cold and wet pretty early on.  The hike is doable just be ready to do some log climbing.

Did this while attempting to connect up to Ellinor.  Got up the connector trail with a little route finding to the lookout, but gave up on Ellinor after post holing and all the downed trees.  It’ll be a few weeks before the snow melts out and I bet the crews will take awhile to clear all the trees.

Road to Big Creek was all clear.