Since there haven't been any trip reports for this one since the last storm, I figured I share with you our group's experience out on trail yesterday.
Normally this one can be a fairly quick and easy hike through the beautiful, mossy covered trees and forest, but yesterday, this entire trail was 100% covered in snow. The snow was fairly deep in some places too.
The snow starts right out of the parking lot (the parking lot has been plowed, but it's icy in spots and with all of the piles of snow, parking is limited more than usual so park at your own risk), onto the Palouse to Cascades Trail and all throughout the entire Cedar Butte trail. We scored with the beautiful, sunny weather on Saturday, which made for constant tree bombs during our hike. Nothing serious. There were a couple downed trees, all easy to navigate over. The beginning of the trail is a bit of an obstacle course with all of the snow-covered, low hanging trees and branches, but again, relatively easy to navigate around and over.
After our group of 6 came through, the trail is now really well packed down all the way to the butte. You're welcome! We stayed on the main path and did not take the junction to the Boxley Overlook. Judging from the lack of footprints at either junction, it doesn't look like anyone else has done this part of the trail yet since the snow fell earlier this week.
It was super cold and windy at the top of the butte where we stopped for lunch, but lower down, it was much warmer. Two of us had snowshoes on and the rest had hiking boots and/or micro spikes. I'd say pack whatever you feel most comfortable traveling with in the snow. This whole trail was absolutely beautiful with all of the snow coverage. Made for a perfect winter/snowshoe hike yesterday.
Even with the snow, the pit toilets were open and available for service!
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