The trail is in good condition，only a little washout at the beginning. Dogwoods and trilliums etc are blooming . Not too long trail but good view on the top.

My husband and I and our smooth Collie, Crockett, hiked to Thunder Knob today because the Diablo Lake trailhead was not accessible due to closure of the access road.  We were hoping for good views of the lake and surrounding peaks with relatively little effort on the Thunder Knob trail.  It is short but not as sweet as the trail description had suggested.  Views from the knob are limited by the lodgepole pine forest, but offered offered good views of Colonial Peak to the south and Davis Peak to the west.  The penstemons and dogwoods are blooming, which brightened up the somewhat scruffy lodgepole pine forest that dominates the area.  This is definitely not one of the more beautiful Cascade hikes, but it makes a decent short, leg-stretcher for early spring when accessible options are limited. 

The National Park crews had just started working on the trail.  One crew was trying to re-establish the trail through the campground, while another worked on removing dangerous trees. The initial stretch of the trail is currently flooded by Colonial Creek and hikers have to pick their way up through the braided stream channel.  We were able to do so without getting wet feet, thanks to water-proofed hiking boots, but this section wold mean wet feet for those in sneakers.  Once over the newly positioned bridge at the edge of the campground, the trail leaves the creek and is dry the rest of the way.

The only difficulty with the trail after that initial section was numerous downed trees across it.  In all but one case, these could be stepped over with little difficulty.  Small children would probably need help climbing over, but in some cases could scoot underneath.  We did have to detour around one small maple tree across the trail, but that was easily done.  I expect that the trail crews will have all of the downed trees cleared in a few days.  

The Colonial Creek campground is still closed, which makes this a good time to try this trail while it is not crowed with campers out for a stroll.  We met only three other groups of two hikers.

We wanted to go outside while also practice social distancing. We figured driving to the North Cascades would be ok. We left Seattle around 8 a.m. and started hiking just before 11 a.m. Not very many people on the trail at this point.

The road and parking to the trailhead is closed off due to snow but it's not too bad to cross. We ended up hiking in running shoes, but would recommend some boots even though the actual trial was snow-free. It will help get through the big patch of snow/ice at the beginning of the trail and cross a few small streams (we crossed the streams via two large logs). If this is your first time hiking, don't worry, people's tracks will lead you to the snow-free trail.

This is a pretty easy and short hike with a beautiful view at the end. It was a great day! 

By around 2 p.m. when we headed down there were definitely more people so keep that in mind if you're considering coming out. 

Parked at road end, which was pretty popular but very few people on the actual trail -- saw maybe three groups coming down and I was the last up. The campground is covered with a thin layer hard snow, and then to get to the trail there is a creek crossing. Not really an obvious spot to do it but it's pretty shallow so even if you don't find some rocks you can just power through... there is a bridge but it's not setup crossing the creek at the moment.

There is intermittent snow throughout the trail but tends to be in flat spots (nothing on this trail is steep anyway) and no traction is necessary. Lots of blowdowns but nothing too hard. Great view at the top!

Good hike for beginners