I spent the day taking advantage of the open passes. Here are my observations: the drive to Stevens Canyon entrance from Enumclaw via 123 will be a challenge once construction begins. Much of the prep has begun for repaving and the back-ups will be unavoidable. Beyond the entrance, all the way to Reflection Lake, it's a beautiful drive! Reflection Lake is covered in snow and ice and is inaccessible. I drove to Paradise to a mostly full lot. It will be busy up there this year! I drove back through Stevens Canyon to the lot at Grove of the Patriarchs and hiked the mile or so in to the bridge at Silver Falls. With the Ohanapecosh campground closed you don't have the loop through the campground available. I just did the short out and back. There's a couple trees down but trail is in great shape and the falls were wild and beautiful! After leaving this entrance I went back on 123 to 410 and drove past a snow covered Tipsoo Lake to the parking lot for the Sourdough Gap hike. Parking lot is about halfway cleared, bathrooms are buried under 10 feet of snow. Thought I might wander but lots of signs cautioning avalanche. As much as I wish it were summer, it's not. From here I headed to Sunrise. White River campground is open for recreation but not campers. I stopped at the Summerland trailhead on my way out and hiked in just a short way. Some debris on the trail as well as soft intermittent snow. It felt great to get back in the area but we're still a few weeks away from easy access to trails. Thanks to the MRNP staff and WSDOT for inching us closer to a full embrace of these beautiful places. 

As mentioned on the WTA website, with the Ohanapecosh campground closed, you can't do this hike as a loop this season.  I went up and back the eastern section of the trail.

The MORA website said that normal winter recreation was still permitted, so despite the construction on HWY 123, I drove around for my annual visit to Silver Falls. There was some construction on HWY 7 near the Nisqually State Park entrance that had the road down to one lane with an automatic light controlling things.  Thankfully in the morning there wasn't enough traffic for this to be a long delay (once the thing turned green).  Came back an alternate way so I can't speak to what it was like later in the day.

I’m assuming bicycles are included in the, “No public vehicle access” noted on the MORA website, because the dump truck traffic on the highway would make it completely unsafe for any bicyclists (in the ~3 miles I was on the road, I saw around 20 dump trucks). 

For hikers, be sure you are listening for the dump trucks, as they are booking it.  Most of them were very good about moving over when they saw me, even though I was getting well off the road when I heard them coming.

Wanting to get off the road as soon as I could, with the Ohanapecosh Campground and all associated trailheads also closed for construction, I took the short spur trail that’s about 0.4 miles up the road from the campground driveway.  You’ll see a small parking area for ~8 cars on the west side of the road; the spur heads north from there.  There are three large downed trees along this spur, two of which have fallen on each other and take some clambering to get over (other choice is to go under – see photo #2 below) but they are manageable. 

Once on the trail itself I headed up to Silver Falls, then continued north on the Eastside Trail to the bridge over Olallie Creek.  There were some downed trees to navigate (photo #2) but nothing that felt unsafe to get over/ under.  As you descend towards the bridge near Silver Falls watch your footing – the hillside has shed dirt/ rocks onto the trail again this winter.

Vault toilets at the Grove of the Patriarchs trailhead were stocked with TP and hand sanitizer – shout out to the Park staff!

Flowers included yellow violets, trillium, calypso orchids, and small flowered blue-eyed Mary.  There was no snow on any of the trails I hiked.  Bugs were swarming, but nothing was biting.

It was a fantastic day to be on the trail! 

I was told by the person manning the gate at the Park boundary that they are working Mondays through Fridays from 6AM to 7PM but currently at least they are not working on the weekends, if you’re looking for a quieter hike.

We parked on the shoulder of SR 123 at the south boundary of Mt. Rainier. The road is gated & closed at this point. We walked the road to the Ohanapecosh visitor center near the campground. We put on our snowshoes there, then followed the trail up the east side of the river to Silver Falls. After enjoying lunch at the Silver Falls overlook, we continued around the loop, returning along the west side of the river to the campground.

There's about a foot of packed snow on the road north of Ohanapecosh. Under the trees, there's even less - but enough snow to enjoy being on the snowshoes. We saw numerous elk tracks along our route. The trail is easy to follow and in excellent condition, with only a couple of blowdowns that were no problem. We hiked about 7 miles in all - a lovely winter outing. THEM, Olympia.

Ohanapecosh is closed for the season, but people are parking at the trailhead there. We parked a little farther north at one of the roadside pull-offs closer to the hot springs. We only saw two or three other groups on the trail, so we had it to ourselves for most of the loop.

The hike itself has some gentle ups and downs but isn't too steep. If you hike clockwise, the section after the overlook is the most uphill you'll do. The falls were raging with the ongoing rain. There was a lot of standing water on the trail that we had to walk around, otherwise, it's in decent condition. Lots of mushrooms and fun fall colors to look at along the way!

Took my mom for a hike today. Trail is in great shape and a good choice for a 78 year old with a bad hip. It’s mostly smooth with benches and logs for resting when needed.
Lots of mushrooms. Vine maple is turning yellow. Very pretty.