Well in all honesty, I didn't make it to the lake because of fading daylight. But I digress.
Took my Subaru Outback up as far as I could towards the trailhead. Eventually a sharp switchback got me and I ditched the car about a mile from the trailhead. The road leading up to there was definitely do-able for anyone with a decent 4wd or Awd vehicle. I could tell someone had been riding snowmobiles which would have been really nice to have on the way up. Snow on the road at this point was about 6-12 inches deep and fairly packed by the sleds.
Got to the empty trailhead and headed into the woods. The trail was easy to find in the snow and I could tell I wasn't the first one to hike it in the past few days. There were a few spots of thick solid ice on hills where microspikes or crampons would have been really nice to have. Once you break out of the trees into the meadow the snow increases depth to probably two feet in most places and waist high in others. I know this because a wrong step took me waist deep. Some of it is packed and some is quite soft, sort of a mixed bag. There is a good source of running water in the middle of the meadow if you're headed to the butte and need water. Not having hiked this before and lacking a map (yea yea I know), I lost the trail after I reached the end of the meadow. I picked it up after about 5 minutes but by then I had hit my turn around time so I headed back to the car and drove home.
I'm not experienced at hiking here in the snow, but there were times when snowshoes would have been great, skis would have been great, and microspikes could have been great so I'm not sure what to suggest you bring. Temps were in the low 20's.
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