Beautiful day today up at Gold Creek Pond with my daughter. It started out real foggy but then the sun came out and brighten the pond up. The trail is pretty packed down but there were still areas to use snowshoes.

Decided to take my toddler to Gold Creek Pond for a little hike and a snow play. 

We started late like around 1:30 PM and FR 4832 was generally snow free (except on the side of the road) so I think all cars can make it to the TH but parking could be a bit tricky with the slushy snow.

There were tons of people as expected but there were less people on the northern end of the lake. Trail was packed, no snowshoes needed. My son wanted to use his snowshoes, so I brought them for him to practice :)

Sun was out for a bit and we also played around Gold Creek Sno Park (near Kendall Peak Lakes TH) to build a 'snow castle' 🙂. 

Trail tread largely destroyed above the turnoff to the cabins, up to the lake edge, due to ATVs hauling pallets and generators to the lake for a bonfire, not advised without snowshoes due to how churned up it is now. Truly finest pro social outdoorsmanship on display.

LAKE IS NOT FROZEN OVER. unknown ice thickness on the near side, NO ICE on the far side! Unless you are bringing tools to measure it yourself, do NOT trust others footprints on the ice.

Frigid, but beautiful day on trail (10 degrees!). Brought micro spikes and snowshoes, but no traction devices were needed all the way to Heli Pond. Path is well boot packed, and easy to navigate. Glad I could see the pond in winter before they close it for restoration.

Forest road to the sno-park is coated in snow. Sno-park pass required with plenty of parking on roadside. Maybe a handful of cars when I arrived at 10am on a Wednesday, with a dozen or so by the time I left.