We decided on this as a quick snowshoe trip for the weekend. It was okay as a trip, but not great.
Getting to the trail was easy. The road all the way to Diablo Lake and Colonial Creek campground is well plowed/sanded/salted. Barring a big snowstorm, getting there shouldn't be too hard.
The hardest part about this trail was the beginning. As far as I can tell, you'll need to ford a small offshoot of Colonial Creek right away. It's not terrible for rock-hopping, but taking snowshoes on and off isn't super fun. That said, you'll definitely need snowshoes, even though there are a few parts of the trail that aren't fully covered with snow. After the first 300 yards or so, the trail becomes much easier to follow. If you go soon, you should be able to follow our tracks. Otherwise, it looks like the trail is pretty lightly trafficked. We saw a few snowed-in footprints, and not another soul the whole day on the trail.
View at the top was nice but unspectacular. The whole hike took us a little under 3 hours with about half an hour at the top, and half an hour wandering around trying to find a place to cross the river.
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