My friend and I choose this trail for an overnighter as the weather forecast for our original destination looked like more than we wanted to deal with(high winds, freezing temps, rain/snow showers). We picked a lovely spot about two miles up the trail. After setting up camp, we hiked up the trail another two miles or so to explore further. While the wildflowers in the first few miles from the trailhead were sparse, we found more and more as we hit mile three and onwards. We had light rain for about an hour or two in the late afternoon, which wasn't an issue, but the trail is very brushy, and we got soaked from all the wet brush. I was glad to be wearing long pants. Ingalls Creek was roaring and provided great white noise to lull us to sleep. We spotted a rattlesnake slithering off the trail and into the brush on our way back; a good reminder to be aware of our surroundings as we hike!

On a Thursday with perfect 70 degree weather, I was the only person on the trail all day... except for what looked like some kind of law enforcement that were just leaving as I got there. I'm assuming they were there searching for the guy that killed his daughters. When I picked up my new forest pass at the station in Cle Elum, the ranger there asked if I knew what was going on in the area, and I said yes. While I was hiking, a helicopter flew over me three times, probably looking at me with their binoculars trying to figure out if I was their guy. None of this phased me. I live in a part of the city where "gunshots or fireworks" is a regular question on the neighborhood Facebook group, so whatever is going on out in the woods is always safer than walking down my own street.

It's a beautiful trail that get close to the river and then leaves it only to come back again several times. Every view of the river is amazing. The grade is easy. The flowers seem past their peak but very lovely throughout. I had six hours, so I just walked up the trail for three hours (probably about 6 miles), found a nice spot next to the river, had a snack, and turned around. It wasn't the most climactic turnaround spot, but I have zero complaints.

There are tons of very good camp sites. I'm definitely logging the idea to drive out one evening, walk in a bit, camp, do the longer hike all the way, come back to my campsite for the night, and then walk out and drive home on the third day. We'll see. I look forward to coming back to this gorgeous neck of the woods.

We did an overnight to Ingalls Creek - a great early season backpacking destination. We arrived to the parking lot at 4:15pm on a Friday, there were about 10 cars and plenty of parking for more. The cars were all decked out with flyers noting that there's a manhunt for Travis Decker. The outhouse did not have TP. There is a trail register to fill out at the trailhead. NW forest pass is required. 

We set off down the trail and only saw a couple of parties headed out. Campgrounds dot the creek and we were aiming for the one at 4.2 miles.  We enjoyed the sound of the rushing creek and all the wildflowers along the way, including ladyslippers, which appear after about 3.4 miles. There are no water crossings until after mile 3, all are easily crossable and on a hot day you may want to have water available for your dog. The trail is brushy at times, so I liked having long pants. We found a lovely campsite adjacent to the stock camp at 4.2 miles. Bugs were out a bit in the evening but not bad at all. 

Hiking out in the morning we encountered one party backpacking in and a few other day hikers. I look forward to exploring more along this trail. 

The trail smelled so, so good with the lupine, paintbrush and Solomon’s plume all blooming. We left Friday after work and hiked in 4 miles.  Had a lovely campsite by the creek. Saturday we had planned to hike in another 5 miles and build a nice fire to lounge by, but it seemed to get windier the further we hiked so we decided to turn around and hike back to our original campsite rather than having a cold and windy night. Trail is in great condition until between mile 8 and 9 there were 5 trees to navigate around, otherwise mostly clear for the first 8 miles.  Someone’s tent poles in a brownish/khaki bag are hanging on a burnt out tree between miles 8-9 on the left side of the trail hiking in; hopefully that person finds them. Even at max runoff right now we could stone hop across all the creek crossings and kept dry shoes. One party we met said they had gone up falls creek and the crossing was over knee deep, but doable. A good early season backpacking trip with not much elevation gain and scattered campsites every mile or so to give you lots of options. Felt like we had the place to ourselves too. We saw 3 groups Saturday (plus 2 tents but didn’t see the people) and only day hikers the last few miles as we hiked out Sunday. 

A fun Memorial Day hike up Ingalls Creek.   We hiked 4 miles up the trail and the Lupine and Indian Paintbrush were out in force.  Ingalls Creek was also roaring today.  Looking forward to doing this again as a backpacking trip..