We arrived at the parking lot in front of the ranger station at 8:30 to no other vehicles.  We could see a couple of people camping in the campground.

The road out to the NP is quite potholed and rough.  It should be doable by any vehicle with care.

Restrooms at the campground/parking lot are in good shape and well maintained.

The trail is in great shape.  We turned around at slide camp and then went about a mile on the Shady Lane trail.  In spite of the heavy rain, the trail was good, with only a few muddy spots.

Salmon berry bushes and wild strawberries are in bloom.  Yellow orchids and trillium are beautiful.

This was a stunning hike. The weather was beautiful and there were a lot of wildflowers starting to bloom. Very few people were on the hike with us. We got there right at 9am and went clockwise. As we were leaving a lot of people were coming in. We had no problem parking. 

I'm doing the Olympic Waterfall Tour and I decided to drive over and bag #4 and #5 on the list: Big Creek and nearby Staircase Rapids. I wanted to get them done before the season advances and the hordes descend.

The road condition "rough but passable" applies just to the gravel stretch going up to Staircase - it's pretty badly potholed, take it slow. The road to Big Creek is fine.

The Big Creek campground is closed; when I got there there were about a dozen cars in the entrance area and along the road - not bad for a Sunday morning. The bathrooms are mostly closed and locked. If you do find an unlocked one, bring your own TP.

The Big Creek loop trail condition was as close to perfect as I've ever seen a trail. It was a pleasure to walk on. There are lots of structures on it: water channels, retaining walls, bridges, even a bunch of nice benches. This trail has gotten a LOT of love!

Trilliums (trillia?) and yellow violets (I get a chuckle out of that name) were to be seen; more forest wildflower types like bleeding heart are on their way. Bugs are just beginning to come out.

The creeks at both places were running high, and fun to watch. I just wish the Forest Service would fix their segment of the road to Staircase. I probably won't be back until they do.

Tried to hike Staircase today but gate to the campground was closed. We then tried to get closer to it via FR-2451, but there is a big shattered Cedar over the FR right after the Copper Creek trailhead. Tried to tag the trails in the area affected.

Today the temperatures were heading into the 50's, and I decided to get some air.  Driving in through Hoodsport was no problem.  There were some potholes, but nothing terrible.  However, at the end of the Forest Service road and the start of the paved road into the National Park, the gate was down.  Why?  I don't know.  There was no snow on the Forest Service road, and if the gate had been left up, then traffic would have cleared the National Park portion of the snow that was on it.  The National Park Service dropped the ball today.  There was no good reason not to have the gate open.

I parked at the gate a little before 9 a.m., the first car there, and walked in.  There was some snow and ice on the road, but not the whole width of the road.  On the 1.1 mile walk from the gate to the toilets I walked only on pavement.  The toilets were unlocked...thank goodness.

Leaving the parking lot, the trail was covered with snow, ice, or slush in most places.  It wasn’t deep.  It was plenty slippery in places and slightly muddy in others.  Between the parking lot and the suspension bridge there were 3 medium sized trees down across the trail.  One of these was at waist height.

I didn’t make the turn up the river, because I knew the snow would get deeper.  As always, I only walked the south side of the loop, which is much nicer than the north side.  About half way back to the Ranger Station I passed 3 hikers.  These were the only 3 people I saw further down the trail than the area around the Station and parking lots.  On the way back to the gate where I was parked, I passed 14 other people.