First time hiking here and was a real treat!
Had a great 2 night backpack with my Scout Troop. Hiked to around mile 9 ish for camp. Day hiked to the start of the Mt Stuart climbing route and back on day 2. The section beyond mile 8 or so has quite a bit of blow down (but as of the writing of this report, some of this may have been improved by trail crews).
The WILDFLOWERS were the highlight. Absolutely beautiful.
There was mention of ticks but we didn’t see any when we inspected ourselves at the end.
The holiday weekend was busy on the trail.
Saw many dogs off leash, which was quite disappointing… this is the wilderness folks, not a dog park!
Overall a really great trail for our Scouts to get a 24 mile weekend hike in.
We loved it!

Lovely trip up Ingalls Creek, a favorite in Spring (and other times too). Plenty of wildflowers blooming; Trillium by the hundreds. Trail is in really good shape for early season, with just a few blowdowns and some minor brush through the old burn area which starts around a mile past Falls Creek camp. Nothing that has to be climbed over or represents a significant detour off trail.

I only went as far as Annapurna Creek, around 9-ish miles from the trailhead. Last season there was quite a bit of blowdown just past that creek crossing, up into the forest. Hopefully that got cleared last season, or will be soon (Thanks WTA crews!!). This is one of the longer Cascades hikes that takes you along a stream/river from lowland forest all the way up to alpine splendor, and it's great to see it still gets maintained pretty well.

Only saw 4 other folks on Friday. Many, many more on Saturday going in as I hiked out. 

This is a very nice hike…good wildflower shows right now and an easy climb alongside a truly beautiful creek. My first woodland hike this year and a great way to start getting back on the trails.

We only hiked part of the trail, turning around at the 3.5 mile point. This section of the trail is a gradual climb through woodland greenery, sometimes on the slope well above the creek and sometimes right alongside it. Right now, the wildflower show is great….lots of paintbrush (reds, yellows and oranges) and lupine. There is also false solomon’s seal, heartleaf arnica, yellow violets, trillium, silvercrown and a few nice scatterings of the beautiful Mariposa Lily. The balsamroot is a bit knackered but still pretty. Look for a few scatterings of desert parsley, Hooker’s fairy bells and larkspur.

Ingalls Creek is beautiful right now with several spots right on its bank for a quiet think or a lunch break. And every now and then you get a glimpse in the distance of the Stuart Range. The trail is in good shape with only one tree across the trail in the section we hiked…but no problem to get over.There are a few rocky sections and some slightly loose dirt/gravel on the steeper slopes…but none cause problems. We crossed a couple of small streams but are no more than a short step over with no problem. 

We had no wildlife sightings, including rattlesnakes. 

Great hike and a nice day out on a fun, well maintained trail. 

Logistics/other info:

• The road is paved all the way to the parking lot and in great shape
• The parking lot is large and spacious
• An update to the WTA hike description: There is a vault toilet at the trailhead and it was clean and well-stocked
• One car at the trailhead on arrival and the only one there on our return. We saw one other hiker and a dog on the trail
• Left TH around 10….moderate pace with lots of photo stops and a lunch break. Back at TH around 2:30. Total distance just over 7 miles RT
• No bugs
• More photos, if interested, in link at bottom of report

The trail is in good condition except for one log to step over.  Wildflowers blooming all along the trail.  We went up to the horse camp at about 4.5 miles.  The creek is full of water and roaring.  

This was a Mountaineers overnighter. On the first day, we pitched camp at a site about 1.5 miles beyond the confluence of Ingalls and Falls Creek. We continued for another couple of miles until we encountered a stream crossing we would have had to wade (but it would have been easy to do so), and then returned to camp. Our hike out the next day was uneventful.

For the most part, the grade is very gentle on this hike. There are plenty of excellent campsites along the creek. We didn't encounter any snow, but it was in the low 30s at night.