Glad I finally made it out here after hearing so many great things. The trailhead for Ingalls is a good 2.5 hours from Seattle, so get ready for a long day. The last part of the drive is 9 miles or so on a bumpy USFS road. The most popular time of the year for this hike is in early October, when the larch trees turn gold. We went for one of these weekends, got there at 10:30am, and the lot was full, with about 20 cars lining the road in. The whole hike is beautiful, full of different things to see. We were constantly fascinated — chunks of ice along the trail that looked like bunches of threads, views of Mt. Rainier and Mt. Adams, rock fields, cairns, golden larches, the towering beauty of Mt. Stuart over Headlight Basin, creeks and meadows, and finally, Ingalls Lake. It’s a long hike. The book says 9 miles, but it really feels longer. I normally make it to my destination before I eat, but for this one, we ate as soon as we hit Headlight Basin. Then we had to navigate around an entire side of the large basin before navigating through a boulder field that required cairns to find the way. There were a lot of people camping in the basin — not a bad idea. Finally, the lake itself is a bold blue. The best views(without climbing) are a little to the left of the entry point, with Mt. Stuart behind the lake. Apparently there are often goats spotted on this trail. We didn’t see any, but other hikers that day said there were some on the other side of the lake. Finally, a warning. This is not a good hike for beginners. You have to be in decent shape and you have to be prepared. It was a wake up call when the news reported a woman missing at Ingalls in white out conditions just a week after I hiked it. So much of the trail is exposed that both heat and cold are extreme factors. Bring your 10 essentials, especially extra water, and be safe, but it is totally worth the work.
