Good hike for beginners

This is a great time of year for this normally busy trail!
The road was fine and we encountered no one else past the creek crossing.
BTW, the creek crossing is exaggerated, if you have walking poles there are multiple stone steps you can take and stay dry.
It must be worse when the snow is melting, but that was not this day.
In fact, besides a few trees down across the trail, the frozen footprints in the rock hard snow were the only real obstacles.
But there was enough room in the snow to the side to avoid these.
We didn't even need micro-spikes!
I'm sure that is changing, probably even as I write this, but it is an easy trail with a peaks at mountains all along the way and a big view for a small hike at the end.

Yesterday my family hiked Thunder Knob, and it was a perfect hike for my kids. My 2 year old hiked the first mile up, then backpack. 4 year old did the whole thing! There was a small amount of frost on the ground but not enough to need extra traction. The only challenging part for us was that the footbridge over the creek has been removed for the season. We made it over on a log and a bit of creative stepping thanks to goretex boots. It was a beautiful hike and I would highly recommend before Hwy 20 closes for the winter. 

Trail is in amazing condition and was a perfect choice for growing distance/endurance with my 5 year old. Started at 2:30pm with plenty of parking at trailhead. Creek crossing was slippery across 2ft wide log but still very doable. No snow or ice on trail. We only saw a handful of people on the trail which was surprising on a clear sunny Saturday. We had the view to ourselves for over an hour and only saw one other party that arrived as we departed. Back to the car by 6pm. 

Very nice views for the (little) effort. Round trip is 1.5 hours

Parking along Hwy 20 just near the entry to the campground.

Do note however that crossing colonial creek is just a little tricky, and requires walking over a relatively wide log about 5' above the creek, before crossing the second part of the creek over the bridge.

Otherwise the trail is dry and in very good condition.