We parked about 2.85 miles before the actual trail head due to snow covering the road (and my car cant handle snow). We made it to the lookout. Roundtrip we did 9.10 miles. We saw no other hikers.
Parked at 9am on the side of the road (so big vehicles could get by if they wanted to go further). The road was mostly covered in snow the entire way to the trailhead (ranging from 1 foot to 4 feet), there were patches here and there not snow covered. Luckily it was nice and firm so we didn't put on snowshoes or spikes, just walked with poles.
Once at the official trailhead the trail started obvious/wide but mostly covered in snow. When the trail starts switch backing quite steep the trail got thinner, but absolutely no snow on this section (which was lovely).
Once we got above the switchbacks it was solid, untouched, snow. We put on our snowshoes and followed GPS up to the lookout. Be careful of tree wells. The snow was pretty firm overall.
Hung out at the lookout (outside it). 1 of the panels (North side) was 1/2 broken/ripped off. We saw 2 large goats and a baby goat (see photo 1, on the top of the little mountain @ the roughly 4 o'clock position).
The snow on the road was much stickier, wetter, squishy on the way back, definitely not as convenient as in the morning. On the walk back a big jeep and a big truck were braving the road.
No water on the trail. But plenty of snow and wind, lol.
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