Nice combo of firm snow with a little powder making for nice snowshoe conditions. Unique opportunity to hit the snow covered trail before the ski area opens and with minimal avalanche risk. Because the ski resort and lifts aren't open yet the entire place is open to snowshoes, hikers, and backcountry ski/snowboards as a bit of a free for all, which is a little messy but fun and means more parking than usual. Today the road was compact and safe enough for hikers to walk right up as far as the upper Artist point parking lot which I have never seen before and there was some cool ice along the road. You def need a map up here because blindly following tracks can easily get you in trouble. We saw a few people follow skiers up some danger slopes. We went up to Huntoon Point and it was stunning up there. The non road trail is steep in areas and not a beginner trail. 

Road/Parking: Parking is at the ski resort and there is a pit toilet. The road up there is steep and winding with a touch of ice in some plates. You need to carry snow tire chains now through spring to drive up here. 

ok if you come up to the snow shoe/xc/skins trail the *day after* it got a huge storm pleeeease bring your gear and don't be That Pair postholing 2' deep right up the middle of everybody else's nice snowshoe/skin track the whole way up...

I am impressed by your quads. I'm not impressed by the destruction of the nice path that was built by midmorning. the free-rider problem strikes again. oh well. i wouldn't want to break trail in just boots either

I brought Xc skis, my only pair that is åsnes mountain race skins. the downhill ski tourers had a better time than me bulldozing up the hill with their wide stable skis. Hopefully I will have a better time in deep snow like this when my new poles with big snow baskets arrive.

I got slightly beyond artist point proper but it did not seem clear how to get to huntoon safely on my narrow skis and sharp poles. the ridge was relatively narrow, and the path to huntoon had several large mounds all with lots of unstable powder to navigate and drops on both sides. no trail there broken as of 2pm. I did 5.25 mi according to Gaia.

most of the parking isnt dug out yet so good luck. I got really lucky at 11am probably because someone left.

pros: incredible views in all directions. I am glad I did this exactly today. well worth the drive it was all I wanted out of stupendous North Cascades Big Sharp Pointys. stunning.

cons: cannot imagine bothering getting up here once the downhill resort opens and the twisty road up gets congested. there is a lot of yellow snow everywhere on the road and in the lots despite open (and stocked!) biffys. not all from dogs unless they can spell.
tons of dogs almost all off leash and several with poor recall. which explains the fresh poop around too. sigh

unfortunately it seems like in busier season this place could get literally disgusting. with the huge new snow yesterday, all the grossness I saw had to happen before just 3pm today. imagine after a pow-free week. ew! real shame since the views are definitely as good as reputed. I guess timing is key here.

edit: the trail description is a little confusing to me, i think because of the early season. I, and everybody else, followed the summer road 95%, only diverging JUST before the top.

Gaiagps route linked below

As described in a previous trail report, the road closure point is (still) at the Bagley Lakes Trailhead parking area - it doesn't go as far as the Heather Meadows Parking Lot yet. Up to that point the road is 100% clear and dry. 

I started hiking at about 10:30am and arrived back at my car around 1pm. It was about 62 degrees F at the start and 66 at the finish, with a cloudless sky. The sun was really intense and I was glad I was wearing a hat. The snow was hard-packed underneath so I had no issues with post-holing, but on top it was very "slippery". I strongly recommend microspikes and trekking poles or snowshoes for the hike to Artist Point.

I easily followed the trails of previous hikers/skiers/shoeshoers to Artist Point, although it was comforting to be recording my hike on Alltrails/Strava to retrace my steps back down if I wanted to. There was an extremely steep section that some people traveled to shorten the route, but it was super unstable/slushy so I followed the "road" (snowplow track) for quite a while. 

The Artist Point parking lot and toilet were not discernable at all. 

Strava says my total distance was 3.2 miles and Alltrails said it was 3.5. 

This was my first time doing the Artist Point snowshoe. I arrived on Tuesday afternoon and just wanted to get familiar with the area before I did the actual snowshoe on Wednesday morning. There's no snow driving up the mountain until the point of the parking lot and then there appears to be tons of it. The afternoon I was familiarizing myself with the area, the snow was giving way and snow shoes were the best option. That afternoon I followed all the trails that they are using the machines to groom, I ended up at the top of some ski runs. On Wednesday morning, I took off at 6:30 in the morning and the surface was firm enough I could get away with using micro spikes. I followed the groomed trail and used my Gaia to help me go in the right direction for Artist Point. There are no signs and it's kind of every man for himself at this point finding your best route. I was lucky that morning was broken clouds and I got some beautiful views. I hung out for an hour and by the time I was descending, the surface was getting soft enough that even though I stayed in my micro spikes, they were working against me and I really should've switched to my snow shoes. Despite all of our recent warm weather, it looks like there will be enough snow to do this route for several more weeks.

You can't drive to Artist Point yet; the road hasn't yet been cleared. So we started at the Bagley Lakes parking lot near the ski area. The snow was packed down but slushy on top. I wore microspikes, while my companion wore only boots. Due to the slow conditions, we didn't quite make it to Artist Point, but it was a beautiful day with very few visitors on the mountain. I envied the cross-country skiers; the conditions were perfect for them and will be for some time to come. It's going to take months until the hiking trails are snow-free.