Moran State Park - Mount Constitution via Mountain Lake — Saturday, Feb. 20, 2021

Hiked Saturday Feb 20th, three of us and a dog. The trail starts snow free but within a half mile up we were climbing some switchbacks with packed snow.  We ended up eventually putting on microspikes and continuing.  At the first viewpoint/clearing, the snow was roughly a foot to 15" deep and the trail had become obscured but luckily someone had broke ground for us before.  As we got to the top of Mount Constitution, the snow was falling in big fat flakes, and we were having to high step into the previously stepped through tracks above the covered undergrowth and shrubs (although clearly, the previous hikers were giants and about 6'5" judging by their huge strides). It took some big steps to match, and avoid snow falling into our boots, since we didn't have gaiters. Snow was really deep at the viewpoint, going well over our knees. Really really beautiful, to be in a snow cloud and watching it fall all around us.  The snow clouds obscured the view of the islands a little, but it was all totally worth the experience all the same.

Perhaps, this will all melt off soon and this report will be a moot point, but we didn't realize we were going to encounter any snow at all! At least we had brought our spikes and extra layers. We had originally planned to hike back down via Twin Lakes and go around Mountain Lake back to our campsite, but despite the spikes and layers, we just booked it down the closed Mt. Constitution Road because the snow did fall into our boots and we got cold. 

Only encountered one two person group in the entire hike up, no one at the summit, and no one all the way down. Beautiful, highly recommended. Especially in the snow.  Just bring spikes and/or gaiters if you like traction and staying dry.  But what a unique and lovely day for a snow hike!