It was ice and compact snow at the entrance before the gate and then nice fluffy snow for the rest of the campground. When there's this much snow, I go clockwise because the first half of the loop doesn't get as much snow as the waterside, second half of the loop. That way if I have to turn around at the bridges at the top, I've still gotten to enjoy the snowy forest for a bit. And that's exactly what happened. The snow was grippy and solid enough not to need any equipment up to where the trail splits off between the Upper Big Creek Trail and the Ellinor Lookout trail and the first of a series of bridges. Within three steps on the bridge my feet started slipping to the sides. I ran into a couple earlier that had differing opinions of the state of the waterside half of the loop. The guy said it was a bit treacherous. The woman said, no, no, it was fine. The first bridge isn't usually a big deal, it's the Big Creek bridge that can really get scary if there is slippy slidey snow. Gotta bail when the thought pops in your head. All in all, it was almost 5 miles and over 1000 feet elevation gain. Last little thing, there are no open bathrooms at this time of year. 

Beautiful trail through the forest, crossing multiple creeks. Steep for the first half and then downhill the whole way back. We did this with 2 kids under 12 and a dog and it took us around 3 hours.

This is my first time back on this trail since the most recent logging venture and there are sections that look different for sure. This is one of most well-designed trails I've been on with running water in mind. Even with the various drenchings, water flowed where it was supposed to. There were a few inconsequential snow patches at the top and on the water side of the loop. There are also three easy to step over trees down over the trail. Almost no trash except for a few bad pet owners and their poop bags left at the start of the hike. There was a steady trickle of hikers today. 

Note: Watch the water levels of the Skokomish River not too far from Potlatch. It looked really high today.

Having retreated from Staircase (where the road was gated at the park boundary and flooded at the park entrance booth) Big Creek became our plan B destination for a short day hike. We hiked the upper Big Creek loop as far as Dick’s Rock, then backtracked to the car. The trail was in great condition, and the bridges provided a great opportunity to watch Big Creek living up to its name. Be aware that there is active logging in the campground; we stayed well away but got to admire the precise felling that the crew was doing.