[Tagging Mt. Ellinor, because I snapped a picture of the lower lot (buried in snow) and hiked to the viewpoint at about 3,330 ft, shortly before the junction with the upper trailhead. More below]
I arrived at a quiet Big Creek parking lot at about 8:45 am this morning. Only two other cars in the lot. Straight out of the car, I put on spikes, as I was greeted with bare ice. I started the loop going clockwise. The whole way is covered in snow/ice which sometimes was really quite slushy. It is still gorgeous, lush, and quiet forest though! I continued on the Mt. Ellinor Connector Trail. The bootpath was easy to discern all the way up the the viewpoint and then to the junction with the Mt. Eillnor Trail.
Since I was curious to the status of the road, I took a quick detour to peek at the lower lot. Lots of snow...probably close to 8-10 inches. If you want to attempt Ellinor anytime soon, it's looking like access from Big Creek is the only way! At this point, I switched to snowshoes, not out of necessity, but moreso because I had them, so why not? It took about 30 minutes to reach the viewpoint of the lake that's along the Mount Ellinor Trail. Completely socked in with zero views. From what I could tell, the footprints did continue past the viewpoint along the trail. Not sure for how long.
I was a few minutes into the return trip when I nearly had a heart attack encountering another hiker. (I had forgotten other humans existed :)) I only saw four other people the rest of the day! Completing the loop back to the campground was not a problem. Lots of snowy slush, so care is needed, but totally doable!
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