The weather was unexpectedly miserable and we were totally unprepared! Neither my husband or I had any sort of waterproof gear (which obviously was very stupid lol) so we were soaked through by the end of it.
Make sure you get there when the parking opens (6am) as they fill up quick.
We took the detour to the falls, somewhat unexpectedly only because we couldn't find the trailhead to the Mt. It was nice, but I still would have preferred to just start the actual hike. The sign for the trailhead was nestled in between a few huts and was best visible coming back from the falls, but otherwise it's about half way to the falls.
A little tip! Once you reach the top, there is a building that is the only heated room on the top. When you summit, instead of going straight to the cafe (or go to the cafe first), turn right, and head to the CHARA exhibit hall (next to the 100 inch telescope), and hang out for a bit out of the wet.
The trailhead down is across the otherside of the parking lot below the cafe. We took the upper winter track as I didn't want to be walking back up that concrete in the end, and we had parked right where the trail ends – so it worked out best for us. Watch out for low lying branches – I totally smacked into one in the last mile and it was a whopper.
Overall was a good and challenging hike – although if we were better prepared it may not have been such a painful experience!