Merry Christmas to all those who celebrate 🥳 We got ours started near Snoqualmie Pass at Gold Creek Pond this morning. We didn't need to dream of a white one — we got one!
Note that with the snowstorm today, most of this trip report will likely be out of date by the time it's even posted. But hey, here are some pretty pictures!
THE ROAD / PARKING
FR 4832 was mostly snow-free, just a bit slick. FR 144 was where the snow began. We parked at the intersection of the two on FR 4832, as did most cars. There are 2 port-a-potties here — the one I used, at least, had plenty of toilet paper and hand sanitizer, and was in good shape.
When we got to there around 9 this morning, there were maybe 10 cars there. There was also one car that had braved the snow and parked at the actual Gold Creek Pond trailhead. I wouldn't recommend this for most cars (the one that made it did fine, clearly, so some good off-roading/AWD/4WD cars would not have an issue), especially as it's such a short snow hike to the trailhead — we saw a car stuck in the snow as we were heading back to our own just a few hundred feet up from the intersection, with folks trying to push the car out (it looked like they were able to get it).
When we got back to the cars, there were cars lined 0.1 mile down the road in either directions — a few dozen at least.
We bought our Sno-Park permit online yesterday and printed it off — a sign at the turn off onto FR 4832 indicated you needed one to park on the road.
THE TRAIL
Well, it was snowy!
My partner and I had prepared for snowshoe conditions but we never used them. We did put spikes on, which made for super easy walking but we would have been fine without them. The snow on trail was packed down, and easy to walk on and follow.
There were actually a few very small sections on trail that were bare. Not enough or long enough to take off the spikes, but that might give you an idea of what the snow was like.
MISC.
When we got started, there were only a few parties out, but as we finished up the loop, we saw a lot of people coming up from where we parked (many of whom had sleds). We were surprised by how many cars we saw when we got back!
The pond was really pretty. The side of the pond away from the creek inlet was so calm and had a sheet of ice forming on it.
Comments