The restrooms at the Verlot station are open, clean, and stocked with running hot water in the sinks (at least in the women's side). Mountain Loop Highway has many frosty sections and we felt the car slip three times. Take extra care driving around shaded bends in the road.
Snow begins immediately at the Deer Creek gate and continues all the way to the ice caves. We wore microspikes and gaiters the entire way. We had poles but did not use them, and the gaiters were not necessary, either. Microspikes made the walk much more comfortable but we saw many hikers without.
The snow is compact, not fluffy at all, and easy to walk on with spikes. Once you go past the picnic area toward the caves, the path is well-defined through the forest. There are several downed trees to duck under and hop over.
The base of the ice caves looked like avalanche debris; all the more reason to never get too close to or enter the caves.
Fitbit logged just over 7 miles roundtrip.
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