This is a road update for Money Creek and Miller River.

MONEY CREEK

The road is now plowed 2.5 miles up from the bridge at the bottom. This reduces the walking distance to Lake Elizabeth to about 4 miles each way.

On our hike today, we talked briefly with the county worker who was plowing the road with a large grader. He said he was continuing to plow for about a week, and his goal was to reach the small landslide on the road so it could be fixed. From my earlier hike, I believe this landslide is about 4 miles in, just past the flats at the bottom of Goat Basin. The plowing is slow going because there is about 1-2' of very heavy, dense snow covering the road above where it is plowed.

Right now there is a nice plowed turnaround area at the 2.5 mile mark. There is another parking pullout around 1.8 miles in. The road is wide enough for two cars to pass between the snow walls on either side, but if you park, one of the plowed turnouts is probably your best bet.

Past the plowing, the snow is rather soft and wet, but it can be done without snowshoes if desired, no spikes required. Hopefully the upcoming cool weather will firm it up again, since it was fairly laborious walking on it even with the snowshoes.

MILLER RIVER

They haven't plowed much more of the Miller River Road since my last report. It is plowed to about 2.2 miles from the intersection with the Money Creek Road, which is only about 0.2 miles beyond the Miller River Campground. The snow beyond looks soft and heavy and probably about 1-2' deep. 

I made it to Lake Elizabeth on a mostly cloudy Monday. I expected rain throughout the day, but it turned out to be totally dry for my hike, other than snowing on me for about 20 minutes while I was at the lake. This was my first time to this lake or on the upper half of the Money Creek Road, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

Getting all the way to Lake Elizabeth and back is quite a long way - about 13-14 miles, but the views are really nice if you're up for it. And, the views are still good if you go about halfway to the lake, and the bottom section of the road is a pleasant walk too. The entire hike is a gentle grade with a few flat areas.

ROAD: The lower part of the Money Creek Road is plowed through the residential area up to the bridge over Money Creek. After that it is snow and ice covered and is not driveable for normal cars, even with AWD and snow tires. Farther up, there are only 2 or 3 places where you could easily turn around or park without blocking the road, and they're all within half a mile of the bridge anyway. If you have full recovery gear and are prepared for winter off-roading, you might be able to drive in a couple miles, but everyone else should park on the downhill side of the bridge. 

There are deep tire tracks on the road up to the 2.5 mile mark, plus snowmobile tracks in the center that extend about a half mile beyond that. The snowmobilers turned around at the concrete ford, since there is about a 30' wide section of bare concrete they probably didn't want to cross. 
 
SNOW: The snow at the bottom is maybe half a foot deep but it's firmly packed. I started the hike in just boots, but quickly switched to spikes as there are some icy sections. With the spikes on, I learned that walking in the tire tracks works really well since they're hard packed. If you stray outside the tracks, it's easy to sink in 4-8 inches, which isn't too pleasant.

Once past the tire tracks, I walked on the snowmobile tracks until they ran out - this worked OK but I was sinking in more frequently. Past the ford, I switched to snowshoes for the remainder of the way to the lake. Conditions were excellent for snowshoes - most of the time I was not sinking in at all, and only occasionally did I sink about 1-2". On my way down in the afternoon, things had softened up a bit so I sank more frequently, but nothing that slowed me down too much. It helped to try to stay on the crown of the road.

The snow gets progressively deeper on the ascent, and is probably about 6' deep at the lake.

For the one brief off-trail section I did, the snow was nice for snowshoes and I was generally sinking 3-4". At least, when I wasn't punching through to a hole next to a log or rock! To shorten the hike a bit, you can easily cut off the switchback in the road - just veer NNW when the road makes a hairpin right. It's not steep and you'll hit the road again about 200' up. I took the road on the way up, hoping there might be some views from the end of the next switchback. There aren't, so you're not missing anything with the shortcut.

SIGHTS: I thoroughly enjoyed the views on this hike, and they get really good as you get closer to the lake. The majority of the road is in the trees, but you are near Money Creek a lot of the time. This valley is separated from the highway by a ridge so there is no road noise. A few good spots are listed below. Note that these distances are from the Gaia web version - my GPS on the ground was recording about 10-15% higher distances.

• At the bridge: Nice view of Money Creek
• 3 miles in: A large vented concrete ford shows the power of water during winter storms. There is a view downvalley to Beckler Peak as well.
• 3.4 miles in: Nice views of the bottom of Goat Basin, Money Creek, and Lennox Mountain's NW ridge.
• 4 miles in: Excellent views of the Lennox NE ridge. Also, for about half a mile in this area, Money Creek is in a deep canyon right next to the road with numerous cascades, and waterfalls entering from the south. This is a good turnaround point if you aren't going all the way to the lake.
• 5.2 miles in: Increasingly good views of Crosby Mountain and Mount Rudderham, along with frequent views back to Lennox Mountain and the Lennox NW to W ridge. The views from here to the lake are really nice.
• 6.3 miles in (approx): Lake Elizabeth is pretty, with a backdrop of Mount Rudderham and Crosby Mountain on one side, and the unnamed peaks between Lennox and Phelps on the other side. There is some open water around the outlet area but most of the lake is frozen.

GEAR: Spikes not required, but very helpful for the first 3 miles of the road. Snowshoes and poles required above the 3 mile mark unless you like constant postholing. With current conditions, I didn't need to wear gaiters, just waterproof boots. You don't need fancy mountaineering snowshoes for the gentle grade here.

PEOPLE: Saw no one the entire day - I think this is typical for this area. What's more, I didn't even see any other footprints other than in the first half mile of the road. Be aware there is generally no cell service in this valley past the bridge.

MAINTENANCE: There are 4 different areas between the 4 and 5 mile marks on the road where there appears to be a washout. It's hard to tell exactly how bad they are with the 2-3' of snow on the road around them. You'll need to work your way down to the bare rock / dirt and back up to get through them, but it's manageable with snowshoes on. The spot at 4 miles where the road was blocked for construction last spring is no longer blocked, and there appears to be a brand new trailhead sign at Lake Elizabeth. Hopefully fixing the washouts in the spring is relatively quick.

There are no blowdowns across the road, just a few minor leaning trees that will need to be taken down in the spring. One small mudslide occurred just before the 4 mile mark and may need a bit more cleanup in the spring. 

STATS: 13.7 miles RT, 2000' elevation gain, time 6:05.

This could be such a beautiful trail for people of all ages. As is, it’s too overgrown and muddy to be enjoyed by all.  Only those who enjoy thrashing through brush so thick you can’t see your feet and mucky, mud pits that can’t be avoided will find this trail worth the effort.  It’s a beautiful little lake that can be seen from the road (if your vehicle can maneuver the “fixed” washouts).  There is also a nice view of the lake from a campsite up on a little hill not far from the trailhead (by taking a right on the loop trail) and a little muddy beach area near the trailhead with nice views (by taking a left on the loop trail).

Makes for a pleasant stop if exploring the area. Since it is so short, we included this as one of many stops during our day exploring Skykomish. Other places to visit to make it a day include Evans Lake, Maloney Ridge Lookout Site, the town of Skykomish, Deception Falls, Eagle Falls, and Heybrook Lookout.

Due to the Bolt Creek Fire, this hike is currently inaccessible

road work due to slide about .8 miles after first concrete culvert. about 100 meters after that, snow pack about .5M thick. Did not make it to lake.