Did a quick jaunt up Mount Walker to burn off the turkey (okay, the cheesecake). 

The road is gated right off 101, but the trailhead is less than a 10 minute walk up the road. 

I forgot how steep this hike really is! This is to be my training hike for the winter, and so I wanted to find my baseline. 

Arrived at the trailhead late, at 1:45pm, but was surprised to see the small parking area almost completely full. From the trailhead, it took me 50 minutes up and 28 minutes down. I jogged much of the way down. I was driving away by 3:40, so just about 2 hours total, including the walk to the trailhead, a little chill time at the top, and a change of shoes at the car. 

Attempted to drive up to Zion but too much snow on the FR for clearance on our SUB AWD. Drove down to Walker and got some surprise sunshine! Gate is open, but there is a significant amount of snow in at the top so you can't drive up. Parked at the trailhead, 2 miles to the summit (always feels like more than 2 miles with that elevation gain), walked the .5 miles over to the other viewpoint and back over and down. Wore gators, which was very helpful the last .5 mile and walking the road to the south viewpoint. Microspikes going back down would have been helpful because it was slippery. Beautiful day! 

We were blessed with solitude on this Sunday morning hike and our dog blazed the trail through fresh snow.  The snow got deeper as we gained elevation. Trail was still great, wide and steep, definitely a thigh burner and you need poles on the way down and  microspikes now that there is snow.  Best part was the top when the sun broke out and there were no footsteps, not even at the parking lot where you can be lazy and drive to the top.  On our way down hikers finally started appearing, some with only running shoes.. folks it's winter in the mountains :)

Gate was open.  About 40% of the trail had some snow, mostly on the upper half and mostly a thin layer until a bit thicker at the top.  No problem with boots and poles. 

Honda Civic made it to the trailhead around 12:00PM. Probably 10 other cars there. Nice trail, but a workout. Soft ground and lots of tree coverage till you get to the top. Lots of people at the overlooks since you can also drive to the top. We still enjoyed lunch and saw 4 volcanoes plus Seattle and Hood Canal. And plenty of peaks in the Olympics. I would recommend this hike if you haven't been. I didn't use my hiking poles.