We got to the trailhead at 8am Sunday morning. There was plenty of parking available and it was relatively quiet on the way up, saw maybe 10 people. It was much busier on the way down though. As the description says, the old fire road takes you a decent ways and is quite gentle and easy to navigate. Once the switchback starts it's a little rougher although still very manageable. If you need a break, the view of the valley and opposite ridges is awesome :)
Temps were at around 30F in the morning and after seeing snow patches here and there, the trail got icy about halfway up the switchbacks. It's still okay with boots but we found our microspikes hugely helpful, especially for the last half mile or so to the waterfall where the trail was all snow/ice, and for the way down that same stretch. We saw many people make it to the falls without but I personally would have been much slower and rather nervous without the traction.
It was definitely worth it to see the half-frozen and majestic falls at the top! Highly recommend going at this time of year, it felt like such a treat. We didn't go very fast and it was just under 2 hours to the top, 1.5 back down.
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