As the weather looked rainy and snowy in most nearby hikes, I went to mount Walker for Sunday hiking. It was cloudy with a bit sunshine moments when I arrived at the gate at 10:35am near US 101 road. The road to the upper viewpoints was CLOSED for now. You just need to walk an extra 0.25 mile to the real trailhead, not too bad. There were a few potholes at the gate parking, limited space for about 12-15 cars( maybe smaller space than that) . The trail condition was pretty good. It was solid and dry. No snow at all on trail to the north viewpoint at around 2800 ft. Just a few patchy on the wide road to south viewpoint. Spikes are not needed.  I just kept a steady moderate pace on the uphill, the trekking poles also helped a lot on steeper slopes. I reached the top in about 1 hour and 10 minutes. Unfortunately no view at north viewpoint. You can rest at a picnic table nearby. There were 2 toilets too, without toilet paper. I kept walking on the road for 0.5 mile to the south viewpoint. It was foggy and cloudy there too. But I waited about 20 minutes and the sun came out for a while, the view looked quite nice with the sun over the clouds. A lot of birds there too. For downhill I just ran mostly on the original route, it was really well-maintained with lots of switchbacks and not rocky mostly. As I still have plenty of time left, I did a second lap too, really good workout. This looks like a very popular hike.  Altogether I met over 35 people on my 2 laps there. Many hikers with dogs too. Thanks for a family hiking group who shared a bottle of extra water with me. I was a bit worried I might not have enough water for the second time uphill. Although I didn’t drink that extra bottle when I finished, it always feels good to have an extra bottle just in case. 

Warning: the weather could seriously worsen in the coming stormy days. So this report just shows the condition on Feb.19 only. I recommend everyone check the NWS forecast or mountain forecast website before hiking. 

Park at the bottom of the road, road up the mountain is closed for the season. Trail is in good condition, there is no snow. I went up the trail and then came back using the forest road. Overall it was about 9.5miles total.

Snow free trail. Cloudy at summit. Will need to return another day for the views. Great hike to work on the leg muscles!!

Hiked to the top of Mount Walker. Road is gated, but you can park on the road by the gate. Trail is in good shape, snow free. No restrooms.

A sunny break in the Long Grey meant a quick trip to enjoy the vistas from north and south viewpoints, which did not disappoint!  Rainier had a stack of rectilinear clouds launching, while the snowfields on Baker shimmered in the sun.  After our snows and winds I figured there would be a few trees that had dropped across the trail but was surprised to find not a single one, so carrying the saw just functioned as training weight today.  The snow line on the inner peaks looked to be a good 1-2,000' higher than Walker.