Got a late start, but still plenty of parking at the Snoqualmie Lake Trailhead at 11:30. Road is a bit bumpy after the bridge across the river, doable but much easier with a high clearance vehicle. 

Walked up Quartz Creek road, which has a lovely grade and lots of well-constructed culverts. Hoping to find our way up to Lake Blethen, but ran into a large stream crossing at 2.6 miles that looked a little too adventurous for today (picture 2). Turned around and continued up the road towards Cockerel Point, which was nicely graded for another mile and a half. As other reports mention, there are new spurs of road that aren't on many maps yet, curious as to where those lead to. There is one tree across the road, but very easy to walk. The snow starts at roughly 2800 feet, but only becomes consistent at 3200, shortly after the road ends and the trail starts. Made it to the turnoff up to Cockerel Point at 3550, at which point the post-holing started and we turned around (picture 3). We had microspikes but never used them, as the snow was too soft to get any real benefit. Snowshoes could have helped, but we got a late enough start that we were ready to turn around regardless. Walking back was much faster due to the consistently losing elevation.

In total: 8.5 miles, 2500 feet elevation gain,  3 h 30 min

I just wanted to update  ALW Hiker's comprehensive February 28 report - what a difference the re-grade and culverts have made! Ran into intermittent snow after 2900 feet, didn't need traction. Rainy day, but lovely nonetheless. 

Tree leaning across road at 10T 608828 5270121, no problem walking under.

I hadn't been up to Quartz Creek since 2023, before the road was regraded. It looks a lot different now, but is still a great place to enjoy a nice day and a good workout.

Our party of three hiked the "new" road all the way to the end (details below), and then snowshoed off-trail up to the south summit of Cockerel Point at about 4500'.

On this partcular route, the views are come-and-go, but we saw all of the following peaks at one point or another: Quartz, Bessemer, Preacher, Chair, Roosevelt, Garfield, Treen, Rooster, Twin Peaks, Paperboy, Mailbox, Russian Butte, Defiance, Revolution, Rainier, and even Lemah!

Our trip was about 9.5 miles with 3500' of elevation gain, and took about 7 hours.

TRAILHEAD: The usual potholes exist past Garfield Ledges on the way to the Snoqualmie Lake TH. We made it OK in a Prius with careful driving. The bathroom is open but wasn't stocked. No cars when we started at 8:15 AM, but maybe half a dozen when we returned around 3:15 PM.

TRAIL / ROAD: The newly re-graded road is a pleasure to walk on, as obviously any brush has been eliminated, along with all the water crossings, tank traps, etc. The regraded road follows the 5640-110 road all the way up the switchbacks toward Rooster Mountain. The improved section also includes the 5640-112 spur at 2600' and the 5640-116 spur at 3200'. We didn't explore these spurs but stuck on the main route. It's pretty easy to follow the main route since you just stick to the newly-graded road. You'll need to stay right at 2600', and turn left at 3200'.

COCKEREL POINT ROUTE: At 3500', before the creek crossing, we took the 5640-120 spur toward Cockerel Point. We left that spur at the first switchback and then just followed the west ridge all the way to the south summit. You could stay on the 120 spur through all its switchbacks up to 3900' and then get on the ridge, but in snowshoes the direct route works fine.

The south summit of Cockerel Point has some views, but also lots of trees, so it's hard to get a wide shot of any of the peaks. There is a nice flat area on top to stop for lunch.

We explored about 100' north from the south summit to see if the views would open up, but didn't see any obvious openings in the tree cover ahead, so that's as far as we went. Based on the topo map, we knew the actual summit of Cockerel Point was pretty exposed, and it was beyond our energy level for the day. It might be fun to check out in the summer - this route seems like it would be fairly OK brush-wise.

CLIMBER'S TRAIL: The climbers shortcut trails that cut off the road switchbacks are still there. However, in some cases, the road regrading has left a pile of logs at the top or bottom of the shortcut, so it's hard to find and get onto the trail. We ended up using the lower (first) shortcut one time and the third shortcut one time. The road part is so fast now, even the best of the shortcuts only save a few minutes. I wouldn't really recommend them unless you are comfortable with off-trail navigation.

SNOW: Intermittent snow starts on the road at about 2800'. It becomes continuous at perhaps 3200'. We put on snowshoes just before the improved road ended, near 3300'. From this point there are still some bare and brushy areas in the woods, but if you stay on the old road bed, the snow gets deep fairly quickly.

Snow was soft and slushy on this spring-like day - spikes would have been useless. The snowshoes were a must to avoid post-holing, but it was difficult to get firm steps in the steeper terrain. Coming down was faster, but harder than going up. We elected to take off our snowshoes on the steep ridge section to plunge step more safely, but were plunging up to our thighs at times!

You could manage without snowshoes if your aim was just to stay on the road and turn around at the creek basin around 3500', but gaiters would be a good idea for the top bit.

Heading up to the south summit of Cockerel Point, it got fairly steep at times, but nothing we couldn't manage with snowshoes and poles. Staying climber's left of the spine of the ridge was helpful in the lower part, just because the spine of the ridge didn't have enough snow on it.

I hiked with my brother, on the Quartz Creek road/trail 5640 to the turnoff/ old road to Lake Blethen, to just before the 3rd switchback. The Quartz Creek road has had new culverts and gravel installed
last year, to the road that climbs upslope on Rooster Mountain. This was a big improvement in road/trail conditions from our last hike to Quartz Creek, in June 2023. This year we wanted to check out the old broken log bridge and old road/ trail to Lake Blethen that we missed finding last year, and the creek and waterfall at the broken log bridge. We talked to one other hiker on the hike in, who said he was returning from the same area. We took a lunch break here at the bridge . Not wanting to take a chance crossing down the steep bank about 15 feet or so to the Creek bottom, we decided to hike back about 150 feet on the old road, to the newer and graveled Quartz Creek road/trail.

The hiking time was about 1.5 hours on the hike in, and 1 hour 5 minutes on  the return to Snoqualmie lake trailhead. The hike is almost all uphill from the Quartz creek trailhead sign, at the start on the Taylor river trail, except for two level spots. The distance is about 2.5 miles one way, to the turnoff to old road/trail to Lake Blethen, from Snoqualmie Lake trailhead. On the return trip, the top of Garfield mountain is visible from the Quartz creek road/trail.