Road is closed due to a partial bridge washout a mile up the forest road. 6 mile gravel road walk up to the trailhead. Some snow at the trailhead proper, but mostly melted. After the long road run we decided just to hike to Blue Lake which was gorgeous but perhaps not worth 12 total miles of gravel.

Forest road 12 was snow packed prior to getting to FR1230 so we didn't get to the hike. I should have brought snow shoes, then we could have hiked up the road.

The road is closed 4.2 miles from the TH for snowmobiling. They've groomed the snow for snowmobiles and left a barricade so no car is getting through.

Guess I should've known from the last trip report being almost a month old but WTA gives no indication that this mountain is turned into a SnoPark in the winter.

The road getting to the trailhead is in great shape, but as of today it has up to 5 or so inches of snow for the last few miles. For most of this, there were wheel tracks that we could safely stay in. Our Subaru Forester made it almost to the top but couldn't get up the last 20 feet to the "official "parking lot.

Weather: clear skies, 25°F at the trailhead

The trial is snow covered from the beginning, so microspikes and poles were used the entire time. Most of the snow was fine powder today, so the spikes likely didn't help too much. 

We missed the Blue Lake - Dock Butte fork (the Blue Lake trail had a bootpath to follow, while the Dock Butte trail was not signed nor an obvious path), so we decided to continue to Blue Lake then double back and find the Dock Butte trail. Getting to and from the completely frozen lake was straightforward, and it was a worthwhile detour. 

We were able to find and then follow the Dock Butte trail by using the AllTrails app with GPS tracking. Without it, a map and navigation skills, or some prior knowledge of the trail, finding which way to go across a few open snowfields would have been very difficult. We stopped and turned back with about a half mile left since we wanted to make it back down the road before sunset, but not before getting fantastic views of Baker and the surrounding North Cascades mountains. 

This is such a sweet little trail! It's a great option if you want something similar to Park Butte but shorter and a little bit easier. I think the Park Butte trail has better footing, though. Lots of rocks and roots on this trail.

We started up at 2pm in hopes of seeing a decent sunset. That was somewhat of a bust, but at least the mountains were all out this time! The trail was frozen from the start and snow began once you reached the meadows and tarns. It was frozen and crunchy but Willow still had a blast playing. The tarns are all frozen as well. We didn't make it all the way to the top because we felt a little uncomfortable on the steep snowy slopes and the existing bootprints appeared to be climbing straight up the hill, which we didn't want to do. I think we probably turned around somewhere near the split between the switchbacks and steeper climb to the summit, since my watch said 2.05 miles. We put our traction on for the hike back down in the dark. It took us 3 hours total, with a fair amount of time stopped for taking pictures. Overall, it was a lovely afternoon!