GATE IS OPEN. Had a great hike today. Road is in good shape, trail is perfect with only a little bit of snow to still cross up near Eunice lake. Snow ends when you start to head up to the lookout from the Eunice lake basin. Had a great time, took a first time hiker and she def got a workout but it was a perfect distance and elevation for a new hiker. Amazing views as usual.

Typically in the summer one drives up to Mowich Lake and parks at the trailhead there. However in off season the road is gated about 3 miles down from Mowich Lake. With 2017 being a high snow year the schedule date for opening the road is June 30. As such I parked at the parking area before the closed gate. I took my mountain bike and biked up the road until I gt to the Grindstone trail which cuts-off the switchbacks. The signs say no bike on the trail. I walked my bike up the first 1/2 mile until I met the road again but then I ditched my bike in the woods and continued to hike up the Gridstone trail until I hit the road again. At this point there was more snow on the road but it was a short distance to the next switchback and a trail leading down towards Mowich Lake and along the Wonderland trail to the cut-off to Eunice Lake and Tolmie Peak. Eunice Lake was still snow/ice covered with a fair amount of snow. I followed previous tracks over to the ridgeline to head up Tolmie. The trail was in the sun and the snow was gone until I got closer to the top but it was easy to follow.
I parked my car around 7:00am and arrived at the Lookout around 10:00am and saw no one. It was 86 degrees up at the Lookout. I hung out for around 30 minutes snacking and taking photos. I met the first group of people back on the Wonderland trail about 1/2 way to Mowich Lake and then kept meeting people all the way down. I got to my bike and pulled it out of the trees and rode it down the road avoiding patches of snow. Going down was so much easier than going up. It was a blast.
WTA shows this trail as 7.5 miles and 1100ft, but because I started down at the gate my trip was longer (13.5 miles and 2800ft).

We were a little wary doing this trail due to there being no trip reports since fall of last year, and that last report stating that the gate at the camp grounds was closed for the winter and anybody wanting to tackle this hike would have to trek a couple miles up the mountain to even get to the trail head. But hey, what the hell. What are adventures for???

After 11 miles of solid gravel road driving through some spanning foothills, Mt Rainier getting closer and more beautiful with every mile, we got to the camp ground access point. Sadly we have to report, even being into the month of June now, THE GATE IS STILL CLOSED!!!

Kayla and I didn't venture that far out into the woods just to have a little gate turn us around though. So the rest of this report will be regarding our attempt to get to the Tolmie Peak Lookout hike. I stress the word "attempt", because that is why the 3 star grade. While I am sure (judging by the pictures) that the hike is a beauty, getting to the part to enjoy it proved trickier than anticipated and we didn't make it. I'm not savvy enough in these foothills yet to know intersect trails or other connecters that were alluded to in previous reviews. We stuck to the road that leads up to the trail head and anticipated it was only going to be about 3 miles. And yes, we found out the hard way that we were wrong.

The road is nice and gradual up the mountain. Peaceful for the first 2 miles. Very nice creeks, mini waterfalls, solid rock faces on the left and good forest grounds on the right. About that 2 mile mark is a collection of more impressive, average sized waterfalls too. These make for nice little refresher stops to take a break, cool off, or just chill at like we saw a rare group doing as we were working our way up.

There was NO threat of snow at all at the beginning nor did it really show itself in the first couple miles, which is why with some full packs we didn't think we needed to bring our crampons. This was also a mistake because mile 2 was where the snow pack picked up. Intermittent at first and patchy, but in no time was nothing but snow on the road. A couple of downed trees to cross is okay, but trekking up the snow pack was not anticipated. The poles helped for sure, but we kept working our way up and up, Kayla ever so often taking a cut through the switch back to avoid doing too much snow trekking.

Again, we had thought the it was only going to be around 3 miles to the trail head. It was around mile 4 was when we decided to call it. Kayla had sadly twisted her ankle a bit in the shifting snow and it started to get slushy and a more unstable/deep the further up we went. At least at mile 4 there was a prominent hair pin turn on a switch back that at least had an epic view point of landscape and gave my vertigo a very solid turn. We climbed up the rock face that was on that hair pin for lunch and to let our feet dry out a bit.

Shockingly, there were two gents coming down the hill during lunch who said it was still about another 1-1.5 miles up to lake Eunice (which was frozen over) and decided against tackling the trail from that point. After they left, we finished lunch, took in the view point a little more, and headed back down ourselves.

All and all it was a solid exercise for the day with a nice scenic pay off at where we at least concluded. I'm not too experienced in the snow trekking game, so it was nice to get the snow hiking points under the belt regardless.Our crampons would have been nice, but the sticks at least helped and make sure your stuff is up to snub in terms waterproof. If you stick to the road like we did, anticipate 5-5.5 miles up to the trail head (the last 3.5 in snow) before your fun even starts.

Glad to be the first for this year to throw a report down for this trail so anybody reading now knows a little more what to expect.

Happy trails