This was a cold, snowy, and beautiful hike with fresh snow from last week's storm and low temps!

Road conditions: The highway was mostly snow/ice free except for some unexpected ice chunks in the tunnels, and the trailhead parking was snow-covered (no trouble parking in a Subaru outback). We were the only car at 10:15 when we arrived, and one other group arrived while we were hiking.

Trail conditions:
The trail ranged from having a light dusting of snow to 6-8 inches of fresh powder, with several ice-covered sections and sometimes frozen unstable ice crystals beneath the snow (see photos for examples). We were able to walk on snow around the ice-covered trail sections. There were several downed trees that we went over or under, and there was no bridge for crossing the stream. We walked upstream and scooted across a log to cross the stream, as all the rocks were coated in ice. I wore microspikes and was glad to have them, but my boyfriend didn't need any (he has quite good footwork). Gaiters would have been helpful up higher in the light powdery snow, but it is such a short hike that it wasn't bad getting a little snow in my boots. Took us about 2 hours with a fair bit of time spent deciding how to cross the stream. The views along the way and up top were gorgeous!

We got off to a later start than we wanted but there were only 2 vehicles at the trailhead when we arrived at 11:15. The trail itself was in great shape and snow free! We had a beautiful bluebird day to start off the new year. As others have stated, the trail is washed out at the start and a stream crossing is required. My wife and I crossed it with our 2.5 year old in a pack and a 4.5 year old stone-stepping to get across. Trekking poles were definitely helpful in the stream crossing. Overall a great day on trail!

Capped off the hike with an awesome post-hike polar plunge in Diablo!

Great morning on the trail. Moody day which made for beautiful light. Creek washed out the beginning of the trail so use your senses to get across either up or down stream. GPS comes in handy in this area if needed.

With the hope of finding snow, my excited youngest two kids and I ventured out to about as far east as highway 20 will take you right now (from the west side) and hiked Thunder Knob. Sadly for my kids there was not enough snow on or off trail to meet expectations. In fact there’s more snow down by Colonial Creek and cleared from the parking lot than anywhere else. (Note there was no snow on the roadways.)

THE main challenge is crossing Colonial Creek since the seasonal bridge has wisely been removed. You’ll very quickly notice why the seasonal bridge was removed due to the power and force that creek has already had on the surrounding landscape. At the moment the creek is not too deep but it is higher than your ankles. We packed in tall rubber boots and wadded through at about where we guessed the natural trail crossing would be. The creek got up to lower calf height on me.

Utilizing the GAIA GPS app was VERY helpful from the trailhead to after the creek crossing as that entire section of trail has been recently whipped-out by the creek. After the creek crossing the trail was in great condition. You can travel quickly to the Thunder knob viewpoints. The snowcapped peaks are gorgeous right now.

No bugs. No wildlife observed. No wildflowers. But there are neat small funguses and mosses to observe. The trail starts in the thick green forest and by the top it’s less green with less trees and exposed. With the lack of a bridge, I was a little surprised to come across five other hikers today.

Have fun!

Arrived at trailhead around 12 noon. The lot just outside the campgrounds were full so we parked across the highway where there was some space to park. (There is also a another campground a large parking lot on this side as well.)

Since campground is closed, the restrooms are closed but there is an outhouse that was open. Did not use but saw others had so know it was open. 

We passed a handful of other hikers/groups on our way up. And saw many coming up as we headed back to the car but it was quite spread out so I didn't feel like it was ever overcrowded. It took us about an hour to trek up with a toddler on my back in hiking backpack and a dog who likes to stop and sniff around. We lucked out because when we went to the lookout at the very end where there are two benches, no one was there so we had a nice peaceful time. My toddler's take: It smells nice here. (Yes, the pine did smell nice.) Shortly thereafter, many other hikers arrived at the top but since there is space to sort of go down on the rocks to get a view away from the benches, it's not like we were all huddled in the immediate same space. We took our time up here and enjoyed our snacks and hydrated. We've done this hike before in the snow and didn't realize how big this view point area actually is. (There is also a first lookout area with benches that others had stopped at but we passed this to go on to "the end.")

Lots of other well-behaved leash dogs out. Just remember that while the start of the hike has coverage because of all the trees, the second half up is pretty much all exposed so you are in direct sunlight on a sunny day like today. 

We did see one large group of adults and kids go off trail and hike "straight up" rather than stick to the trail and do the switch backs. This wasn't an area where someone may have mistaken it for trail. It was clearly brush and gravel and not a trail :(

Some nice red and yellow fall foliage here and there throughout the hike. When we returned to our car about 2.5 hours later, there were way more cars and people around. Not only was that lot just outside the North campgrounds/trail head completely full still, there were cars parked on the shoulder down both sides of the highway - some quite precariously. I think it gets crowded here because not only are people parking to hike, others are also going down to the lake. 

Anyway, this is a great hike for all ages - we saw other families with young kids to a group of teens and many young and older adults.