Went up to the falls for a Sunday afternoon jaunt and wasn't disappointed. This trail is absolutely gorgeous, even on a cloudy day. There so many little creeks and waterfalls and the green forest carpet looks like something out of Lord of The Rings. That said, there are currently 3 reasonably precarious creek crossings. One of them is before the Marten Creek bridge, the other two are after. I'd highly recommend trekking poles as they help a lot with the crossings. There's some intermittent patches of snow here and there as well as a potentially dangerous downed limb. At about a mile-ish in, there's a broken tree leaning from left to right across the trail. It's currently supported in the y of a tree right of trail so make sure to pass it on the left and not walk under it. There's some more blowdown right before the turnoff to the falls but it's all fairly easily circumnavigated. The lake was a bit higher than normal and the waterline on the shore indicated that it had recently been even higher. I also noticed a few very early mosquitos and small flies so I'd bring fishing tackle if you're that way inclined as more abundant food and warmer water is likely to bring trout to the surface. All-in-all, a great way to spend a Sunday. 

Road:

The snow start past Mailbox trailhead. In the early morning, there were places where the road was really slick, so I was happy to have 4WD. The road is snow and ice covered. There is a large rock in the road about 2/3rd of the way to the parking lot that you will have to swerve around. The trailhead is also icy and snowy. The toilet was unlocked and stocked with TP. Once you get off the bridge, there are quite a few large potholes. We have taken our low clearance car up here many times, but I was thankful to have my jeep this morning.

Trail:

Easy to follow. Snow and ice on the trail. We brought spikes, but did not use them. Gaiters were helpful for the minimal postholing that happened. If you stick to the boot path, you should be fine. There are quite a few water crossings that are iced over that started to thaw out on our way back. Some of the falls were frozen and we heard large chunks of the ice breaking off and sliding down. 

Always a fun winter hike! We only saw a couple other hikers today and the weather was great! We arrived around 0830 and the hike was 8.9 miles round trip. 

We arrived at the TH around 10:30a on a Tue. We were the only car when we arrived. There were a handful of other cars when we left. We didn't see anyone on the trail. There is a toilet in the parking lot. It was stocked and clean.

There is frost but no snow on the trail. In 1-2 places there is ice where the stream crossing the trail had frozen. Everything was easy to walk around or across. We did not use poles. The streams were easy to cross.

Today was a beautiful day in the forest. It was my first time on this trail and I loved it. I marked no snow because there was only a trace on the trail and the trees were a lovely sparkling white with frost and snow. The creek crossings were all low and easy to cross. No traction needed, I hike without trekking poles and had no issue. All of the waterfalls are beautiful with icy areas and fun icicles. The trail miles go so fast on this easy mostly flat trail. The road after the pavement has giant potholes but any car can make it. The pit toilet was open, clean, and full of TP.

Got to trailhead at 8:30am, saw nobody all the way to Lipsy Lake. Trail very easy to navigate and, when uphill, super gradual - given the distance, a breeze. A couple fallen trees over trail, but already established paths through, around. I counted 6 streams that took more than 1 step to cross, but none are difficult and can be crossed dry with care. Very interesting, varied terrain all the way. Not a ton of water coming down Otter Falls - it was a steady ooze, but still very pretty. The solid granite face rising from Lipsy is gorgeous. Found some impressive quartz crystals. Had the lake (little pond really) and falls to ourselves. Lots more hikers were on the way up as we made our way back. This may be the best beauty to effort ratio of any hike I’ve been on.