We set out on Saturday to do an easy hike to June Lake. The road in is closed at the Marble Mountain Sno-Park, so we stopped there and decided to try the winter route. (Ran into a ranger who said they're going to try to open it for next weekend.)
Hiked up the Swift River Ski Trail to the junction with Trail 244D. The trail was snow-covered after the first mile or so. I used microspikes, but my boyfriend didn't need them. At lunch,we decided to try to hike up to the Worm Flows, hook up with the Loowit Trail, and make a loop of it, hitting the lake and hiking the road on the way back.
Got up to Chocolate Falls and enjoyed some stellar views! We could see Adams and Hood and of course St. Helens was putting on a show. Because the trail was covered in snow and we couldn't easily see the Loowit Trail, we chose to hike back down to Trail 244D and try that one. The first half mile was fine, but then we hit the basalt field. The snow is pretty thin here, and we kept breaking through snow bridges so we decided to try scrambling over the rocks. I got nervous on the rocks, so we turned around and went back.
All in all it was a great day - the views from Chocolate Falls were incredible. If you do decide to hike this trail, check with the Forest Service to see if the road is open yet. There was easily 3 feet of snow up above Trail 244D and covering the Loowit Trail. The ranger we ran into mentioned that hiking down the road from the Sno-Park and then up to June Lake may be a good option right now.
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