Did the full 6 mile loop starting at the interpretive center. The gate is locked but you can park outside of it along the road, no pass needed for approx another 2 weeks after checking with the ranger on the phone when I left my forest pass at home. Entire loop trail is snow free including out to windy point. Had a nice lunch break on top of the snow shed with the stairs, the only snow shed that is safe to climb on top of. It rained off and on but could see the mountains nearest without issue. Saw no one, lovely day.

Normally the lower half is wheelchair and stroller friendly but there are 2 places close together where a large tree has fallen across. It's not far from the largest bridge near the twin tunnels. They are easy enough to step over but would be a barrier to anything on wheels.

There is much to look at on this trail. It's mostly flat and quite long, making for a very nice and relaxing day hike. The trees around here are mostly deciduous, so I'm really looking forward to returning here in the fall to see the leaves. 

My girlfriend and I started our trip from the Martin Creek trailhead. We hit snow on the road up about a half mile from the parking area. As of today is was a little slippery but I never had to put my truck in 4 wheel drive to make it all the way up. The bathrooms in the parking area were locked. Not sure if they lock them seasonally or if it’s due to the government shutdown. The parking area was mostly full with about 10 other cars at that time. Along the way we only passed one other pair of hikers so we must have all been spaced out or took different routes.

We got on the trail just after 9:30. We took the lower grade to start and did the whole loop counter clockwise. It was a beautiful sunny day. I don’t think it has snowed up here much at all for about a week to 10 days I would guess. The trail did have patches of snow but we had no problems making it in regular hiking boots. We were glad we brought our trekking poles though. Especially when we hit the switchbacks at the Windy Point crossover trail to the upper grade. It was quite slippery in some spots.

Once we reached the upper grade trail we took the 1/4 mile trip to the Windy Point overlook to take a break for some lunch. The snow was considerably deeper on that short stretch but still passable today due to the snow being packed down by other hikers. As the name states it was quite Windy but the views of Stevens Pass were great. We did not try to go any further but it looked like the passable part of the trail ended at the look out as we did not see the trail continue on through the snow.

After lunch we headed back toward the Windy point crossover junction and continued along the trail on the upper grade.  The snow on the ground was mostly consistent from this point for the first couple miles but still not a problem. We passed several streams and a few smaller water falls that were flowing over the large concrete wall that parallels the trail. The snow on the trail dwindled a bit after we passed the Corea crossover trail. We ran into several stretches of trail at that point with little to no snow the rest of the way to the Martin Creek crossover.

We completed the loop and got back to the trail head just before 2:00. There were still several cars in the parking area. I think we got super lucky in mid January to be able to not only have such a beautiful mild sunny day but found the trail to be in such good shape with no trouble hiking over the packed snow. Not sure if others a week from now would be so lucky and may need snowshoes.

Did our first hike of '19 and the second time we've hiked Iron Goat. The lower road in had a tree down blocking the road, but we were able to move it. There was a little ice and snow at the drive you to the trail head, but we made it in my Audi A4 without issue. 

The trail itself has many pockets of snow, but passable. The upper trail had the most amount, and a couple of small water crossings and areas of water on the trail...highly recommend water proof boots! 

We didn't see any other hikers, but there were others that signed the book after us and about 6 vehicles in the lot.