Arrived to an empty parking lot just after 6. There are some giant potholes right at the entrance but then you just park. The trail looks like you could drive up the first part past the sign but quickly becomes too steep for most vehicles so don't.
Rock Mountain felt like a great summit for the shoulder season as most of the steeps are early on in the hike and therefore below the snow line. We were the only hikers on the trail today I'm guessing for the forecast. Luckily, this trail is largely protected from westerly winds as much of it is in the lee of the spur headed up to Rock Lake. In several places we could see tree tops blowing over but the wind was perfectly calm on the trail. This made the hike relatively pleasant despite the inclement weather riding in to close down fall. The rain turned to snow at about 5000 ft. There are a few downed trees across the trail in the switchback section down lower but otherwise this was less challenging than many other peaks in the area. The trail was well defined all the way to the summit even with an inch or so of fresh snow.
My GPS had 9.2 miles from the trail sign with 4200' of elevation and just over 6 hours round trip.
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