Road/Trailhead: The road is paved the entire way since you're heading to Steven's Pass. The north parking lot is snow covered, but easy to navigate. There is no parking pass needed. There are portable toilets in the parking lot.
The PCT trailhead leaves from the parking lot, but you don't start here. Walk up towards the pedestrian bridge and through the upper parking lot towards a couple cabins. Take a hard left at the last cabin and follow this up. It gets steep pretty quickly; this is the service road/trail.
Trail: The trail is snow covered the entire way. I did not wear snowshoes on the way up since it was packed down and not slippery. To get to the lake, you'll take a left when the road flattens out for a stretch, about a mile up. It's pretty easy to spot. Once I got to the lake, I put my snowshoes on to climb up to the ridge. To get to the ridge, walk around the right side of the lake and follow the packed down path up. Make sure to head up to the ridge as the views are incredible! I did not see a lot of people heading up to the ridge and it's worth the little extra elevation.
This is a great trail for a bluebird day. It's short and steep, but not difficult. It would be easy to combine with other short trails in the area if you're driving a ways like I did.
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