First timer here.  New to the west coast and I'm hooked!  I wasn't sure what to expect on this hike, so I took my rental car, headed East into the mountains and figured the hardest part of the day would be on-foot during the hike.  However, the hardest part was in the car.  About 500ft from the parking area for Kelly Butte was a snow patch that was too much for my Chevy Impala to handle.  Yup, I got stuck (My Cousin Vinny style).  However, the Northwest has some of the nicest people in the entire country.  A gentleman not only offered his equipment to help dig me out, but he helped too.  I hope he reads this and knows how appreciative I am.

Reg'd the hike, it was great.  Relatively flat, except for the climbing part which was about 20-30 solid minutes of switchback climbing.  But starts flat and ends flat.  Still some significant snow patches up top, making the trail semi- confusing at times but even a rookie like me found it just fine.  Bobcat tracks along-side of the human tracks.

Firewatch tower was open and is in great condition. 

11.6 miles in from 410. 2 feet of snow on road, not passable.  2 jeeps in front of us got stuck and had to turn back.  disappointment.

Do not be fooled by the description of this hike being only 3 miles. This is not an easy hike to get to, nor is it easy to keep track of the tail. If the trail were clear of snow and clearly marked it would be no problem, steep, but no problem. Before we even got to the trail-head we got stuck in my Jeep in the snow and had to MacGuyver ourselves back up to a safe part of the logging road using branches and logs under the tires (fun learning experience!). Once we got unstuck, we parked and hiked about a mile in to the trail-head over a lot of snow drifts that came over the road. If you have a large lifted truck you'll be able to get further than we did, but still not all the way. The trail head sign was down, but we assumed we were in the right place and headed up. After an easy approach we came to a spot that clears out and overlooks Mt. Rainier. The sign for the switchback route was also down so we missed it and headed towards what I assume was the scramble up through some large rock outcroppings. I personally would say this isn't a safe route for the casual hiker, kids or dogs. If you're a rock climber type you'd be able to do the scramble, no sweat. We didn't feel comfortable with two dogs and all the falling rocks. We turned around to head home thinking that there was no other way up, only to discover the switchback route on our left. We didn't see it on the way up because the sign had fallen. We put the sign back up against the post and made an arrow out of sticks to hopefully guide the next person. We started up the switchbacks to try and reach the top. I'd say we got about 80-90% of the way to the top, but snow was covering the remainder of the trail so we couldn't get to the fire look-out. We trudged through the snow and found a nice out cropping of rock and took some pictures and headed back down.  If this hike is new to you I'd say wait until later in the summer to give this one a shot so you can enjoy the fire look-out. If you know this hike well, bring your snow shoes, you'll need em!