This was my first time to Copper River and I'll definitely snowshoe here again. The elevation on this site is misleading as it is rolling uphill terrain. It is not 400 feet of elevation gain but closer to 1100. It was still an easy to intermediate route. Navigation was easy as it hasn't snowed in a few days and the trail follows a river. It was snowmobile free though you could hear thet at a few points on the trail. We started at 10 am, went a little over 2 miles out and back and didn't see anyone else until we were about a mile from the trailhead on our way back down. An added bonus was that the pit toilets were open. The sun even started peaking out as we were finishing up. Great spot on a clear, January day.

Our family of two adults and two teenagers took a one-night nordic backcountry ski trip to Cooper Lake via the Cooper River Trail (north side of river), returning on the Cooper River Road (south side of river).  Starting from the Salmon la Sac Sno-Park, we found that the cross-country route to Salmon la Sac Campground was not yet groomed, but snow conditions were good on the trail and roads to the Cooper Lake summer trailhead.  At the start of the trail there was an 18 inch base of snow with about 4 inches of fresh powder. The trail begins with a fairly steep climb along Cooper River for the first mile.  The river is soon in a deep gorge below the trail, which follows the upper edge of precipitous cliffs in some places.  After the first half-mile or so, the trail becomes less steep, but continues side-hilling along the slope on the north side of the river valley, undulating up and down, before finally dropping to the flat valley floor shortly before Cooper Lake. The trail was easy to follow, thanks to a trace of snowshoe tracks covered with just a few inches of powder.  Route-finding would have made it a much slower and more difficult trip.  As it was, the narrow trail was challenging, and required good backcountry ski skills, but perfect snow conditions and a clear route made for a very fun day.

At Owhi Campground on the shore of Cooper Lake we rejoined a snowmobile road, but not too many machines came out on the road branch to the lake, so we had a very peaceful night. In the morning we tried route-finding from Cooper Lake to the Pete Lake trailhead.  Without snowshoe tracks to follow, it was hard to stay on the actual trail, and we spent a lot of time tangling with brush and climbing over fallen logs, but we did spot a rabbit in a white winter coat.  We rejoined a good snowshoe track at the Pete Lake trailhead, which again helped keep us on trail and made for much easier skiing.  We didn't get too far, though, before it was time to turn around and pack up camp.

The adults in the group decided that, while the trip in along the Cooper River Trail was fun, the descent (with heavy overnight packs) would be too stressful on the narrow, winding trail with cliffs.  So to the teenagers' dismay, we decided our return trip would be on the Cooper Lake and Cooper River Roads, shared with snowmobiles.  The route had intermittent groups of snowmobiles, with their lingering scent of eau de gasoline, but was an easy ski back out to the Cle Elum Road, about 0.5 mi below the Salmon la Sac Sno-Park.

Ten of us got to the the groomed road at the turnaround about 9:30 am. This is as for as you can drive, but had to park about 1/3 of a mile back down the road. With that starting point it made it a 8.2 mile round trip snowshoe hike. We had lunch on the bridge over Cooper river, near the end of Cooper lake. A beautiful spot!

The trail had lots of snow on it with a few downed trees, easy to get over though. This trail has over twice as much elevation gain as the hike post says it has! 831 feet according to my AllTrails recording. This trail has a lot of rolling up and down, nothing very steep.

Was a challenging snowshoeing hike, but the many views of the cooper river made it worthwhile!