I hiked this trail on a Wednesday, and only saw 8 other people (4 mountain bikers and 4 hikers). The lower part of the trail hasn't been impacted by the fire and was generally in good condition. The upper section of the trail passes through an area burned by the Norse Peak fire a couple of years ago, and not surprisingly, is experiencing some tread damage (sloughing and erosion). This seems to be more of an impact for the mountain bikers than hikers.

After reaching the junction with the Palisades trail, I hiked west to find the Little Ranger Peak summit, but I'm not sure I actually found it. On returning to the aforementioned junction, I continued up the Ranger Creek trail toward the Dalles Ridge trail, but ran into snow just before the junction with Dalles Ridge.

Started at the palisades trail head at 9:30, small parking lot was fairly full (but only fits about 15 cars). We hiked up palisades to Little Ranger Peak (beautiful views of Ranier on the way), down Little Ranger Creek trail, and then across on White River Trail and up to Snoquera Falls and back down to the Palisades parking lot. Overall clocked in 18.5 miles and ~4200 feet elevation. 

Absolutely loved the way up palisades, with so many view points and huge trees with lush, moss-covered ground. The lack of brush and the soft trail made it easy to clock in so many miles. Going through the 2017 fire area around little ranger peak was very eerie, but cool to see what kind of plants pop up post-fire. Snoquera falls was absolutely roaring, and worth the detour (even though our knees and feet were feeling it by then). Beautiful hike for sure. Total hike took 8 hrs 24 min, with total moving time at 7 hrs 20 minutes.

Did this hike 5/08. Parked along 410 with 1 other car and hopped on a spur trail up to White River trail and 0.25 to the trailhead. Only saw 3 mt bikers and one couple on this trip. Easy hike with good tread and a gentle slope. Ranger Creek could be heard for the first couple miles then you head away. Around 3.6 miles you start to see fire damage and then the snow started to cover the trail intermittently - deep at times, but likely minimal by the time you read this. It started out as a warm sunny day, but the cold persistent winds forced me to put on long sleeves - which I rarely do. Got to the junction with Palisades at 4.8 from the car and found a dry sunny spot amongst the snow and had lunch. Maybe another 0.4 miles to Dalles Ridge Trail. Got back to the car and there were 5 more cars and a few mt bikers in the non-descript parking area.

Weather report said it was going to rain, but it was dry all the way up to Little Ranger Peak. Got a slightly late start so we only did the six mile round trip to the 'rocky viewpoint' and back... although there was no rain, clouds and fog were moving all over the place, and we got a few glimpses of a nice view from the summit. Met another two people just as we were coming back down, but it was just my brother and I the rest of the day. Trail was in perfect condition, no snow anywhere, and all the stream crossings were easy.

Backlog Trail Report:

Visited the trail twice in one week and snow was melting quickly with the warm weather. The Trail just before the main peak is pretty snow free besides some small spots. The summit itself was under a foot of snow it seemed. Trail was beautiful and well maintained.