We were excited to try this recently reopened trail and it was a beautiful overcast day which provided some great conditions! We had originally planned to do an out and back via Sturtevant but when we parked we were told at the Pack Station that Winter Creek was recently reopened!

We did the spur to go check out the falls, but that was a bit of a waste of time as you can see it beautifully from the upper trail.

At Sturtevant Camp we were again told by the Forest Service worker that Winter Creek was in fact reopened but you have to do a little detour on the Toll Road as the very end of the trail at the parking lot is totally burned and not safe to hike on. The trail was mostly empty but we encountered a lot of people on the switchbacks.

We couldn't find the summit sign so we took a picture w/the observatory. We stopped for a quick lunch at the very cold top, then had a quick walk through the burn area before rejoining the main Mt. Wilson trail. We stopped for a quick break at Manzanita Ridge bench which was miraculously still there! You could see that the fire had been stopped right at that ridge. We continued down the Winter Creek upper trail and didn't see a single other sole until we made it back to the parking lot.

All Trail had said the loop would be just over 12 miles but when we were done, the app said we had completed 15 miles, so not sure where the extra mileage came from. My watch kept pausing itself so it was an unreliable source to double check.