Got to the Granite Mountain Trailhead around 8:45a and it was decently filled with cars. The toilet was open and stocked with TP.
There is a blowdown right at the start of the trail, but easy to just step over. The bit of the trail is very muddy, but it does clear up as you start to climb more.
It is a nice grade all the way up with few obstacles. There are several stream crossings, but none posed a problem.
When you start to get to the snowy sections, you'll encounter an old boardwalk. This is covered with snow, which made it slippery, so be careful crossing it. It also has some loose boards or ones that have fallen through. This was the trickiest part of the trail.
I did the loop around Olallie Lake counter-clockwise, so kept to the right when I got to that first fork. The sections past that are snowier and it was a bit slushy, which made hiking up it more of a pain, but my poles were good enough to get traction. The snow does cover some of the mud/puddles, so got my boots wet a few times.
Before turning left at the next fork to descend to Olallie lake, I hiked up to the saddle with the fork to Pratt lake. There is a lovely view of Olallie lake and Mount Rainier on this section. I did see what looked like a mountain lion print in the snow on this section, but it didn't seem particularly fresh.
I turned around at the saddle and went back to the fork that takes you down to Olallie lake. This is a step section, and it is muddy and slippery, but it is manageable. Once at the bottom, the trail around the lake poses no issues.
There is a bit of ice in the middle of the lake and some dusting of snow in the trees higher up across the way. It is also very muddy along these more traveled sections of the trail.
The hike back to the trailhead was uneventful. I did have some back luck after discovering that a tree branch had pierced the passenger side of my windshield on my return, but it was good enough to drive out.
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