Great, easy hike. No trail issues, tons of opportunities to stop and rest if needed. We hiked with our toddler in a carrier, a dog and a 2nd trimester pregnant gal. It gets a little windy towards the top. Fill up with water at the bottom, because past the streams at the Colonial Creek campsite there is only a stagnant body of water. Wonderful view at the top!

Since it was a beautiful day we decided to get up into the North Cascades and check on snow levels. There were some minor snow patches down low walking through the campground as well as crossing the old old Thunder Creek bed (nothing sneakers couldn't handle), but otherwise the trail was clear of snow. There were numerous small blowdowns throughout the hike, all easily crossed, but the numbers did get on my nerves only because I was hiking with a leashed dog. Tread is in great shape, but I do question the "wheelchair accessible" description in the guide. All in all a wonderful short hike.

We headed for the North Cascades to snowshoe up Thunder Knob. It was great. There is about 1.5' of snow with about six inches of it being fresh snow. Ours were the only snowshoe tracks, but there were many postholes from hikers who lacked the right equipment. The weather was good: nice temperature of 40, no wind, and partly sunny. We had good partial views from the Knob. The trail is not difficult to follow, especially after we packed it down with our snowshoes. There were no other hikers. In fact, we saw only a couple of vehicles from Rockport all the way to the trailhead. Deer smeared mucus all over the rear view mirrors of my truck while we were hiking, so it must have been desolate all day on the road. I'm glad we chose this location on the first day of reasonable weather this entire week.

The heavy rains of the past weeks were apparent on the trail: Colonial Creek had taken over a little of the trail, at the foot of the first bridge near the trailhead. A couple of small trees had fallen across the trail further on, as well, and several (manageable) mud puddles were present. Nonetheless, it was a wonderful hike. I set out at about 2pm, under mostly cloudy skies, and came upon only one pair of other hikers. The awesome surrounding rocky peaks, mostly visible in spite of the clouds, were washed with first pale coats of snow. Bright yellow foliage dotted the mountainsides here and there. Along the trail, too, pale yellow leaves of vine maples and rusty autumnal ferns glowed under the canopy of evergreens. A side note: The description of this hike claims it's wheelchair-accessible. I'm not in a wheelchair, but I can say with confidence that the trail is not access-optimized--it's a standard narrow unpaved/rocky-dirt hiking trail.