The description of the road in previous trip reports is accurate - you need a high clearance vehicle to make it across a large section that's been washed out. Only one care when we arrived at 11:00AM on Friday.
The hike itself was snow free until about mile 3-4 as we were curving around the ridge on Lily Basin Trail. You are walking across steep valley/hillside on melting, slushy snow. At times, the grade was so steep and awkward - if you slipped the hillside went straight down with no trees, and nothing to stop you from dropping several hundred feet. We only had hiking boots and these sections were slow going - lots of slipping. With the snow cover we lost the trail in several spots (we lost some time here) and were able to re-find the trail by following old footprints. Right as the trail began to curve around the ridge of Lily Basin Trail, we lost the trail and footprints. We finally found the trail after an hour of searching.
When we made it around the ridge of the Lily Basin Trail and could see Jefferson Peak - we decided to camp on the ridge d/t trail conditions being impassible without microspikes.
Views were amazing on the ridge - you could see Mt. Adams, Mt. Rainier, and Jefferson peak.
Overall, wouldn't come here again without snowgear. We saw several other parties who were prepared and were able to do this hike.
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