Rough trail but beautiful day! Several other group out and one of them did an amazing job breaking trail making it so much easier. As others have mentioned, the trail was a bit of a mess with lots of water and trees, including one that was a pack off crawl under and a bit of a squeeze for some. Lakes were all frozen over but quite pretty. On the way up it was ok with poles, but on the way back down the snow had turned slushy and we put spikes on. Snow was about 6 inches at the top. At least one group attempted the peak but we settled for the lakes.
Road/Parking: Very limited but there was one car when we arrived around 9 and 4, plus another in a pullout that could easily hold 2 when we returned. With 4 cars there was very little room left and a large vehicle might not be able to turn around. The road had some moderate pot holes but nothing crazy and was in pretty decent shape due to the recent logging. The tree on the bridge has been mostly cleared (thank you mystery person!). There was a sedan the the TH. The drive has a couple nice views and campsites along the way.
Trail: We hadn't done any homework on this one and weren't sure we would even be able to do it because of the large tree on the bridge, but luckily we had the maps downloaded and it all worked out! We made an unplanned trip up here after finding the gate closed >_< which we didn't think to check because of how little snow there has been so far.
The trail starts out with water flowing across it and that is a pretty good indication of what you are in for. The water generally wasn't too deep and it comes and goes, but my waterproof socks were the only reason I made it out with dry feet.
This trail has been closed for logging during the summers for a few years now and has amazing bridges and structures in some areas, but in others is badly in needs of some TLC. The poor kiosk by the lakes was in pieces and looked to be a recent casualty. Of the trees we went over only a few were a climb over. There were a couple of duck under and the one crawl.
Some of the stairs felt like they were made for giants. I was very happy to have my poles. Some sections of the trail were very narrow but not too bad. There was one switchback across a boulder filed that was a bit treacherous with the snow covering some holes. A couple places were a bit overgrown.
Snow started about half a mile in. We didn't contend with any ice and nothing more than a foot deep. Lots of slick slushy areas on the way down.
Lots of cool fungi on the ground and mountain views as you climb. We could see Vesper and Big Four on the way up and Three Fingers from Upper Cutthroat. There were so many benches, bridges, and even camping platforms, we were shocked at how much has been put into a trail with so little parking. I really hope we can come back in the summer next year to really explore and bag that peak with dry feet.
Stats: Approx 6.7 miles, 1760 ft elevation gain/loss, 5 hours total, 4.5 hours moving. We are fast/moderate paced hikers who hike weekly. This was a little slow going due to terrain and route finding.
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