Arrival at the trailhead: road up was in excellent condition. As expected it was very busy. I arrived around 7am and parked just outside the already full parking lot. Mostly drivers were parking in appropriate spots and maintaining a single driving lane on the road. A long line had formed for the pit toilet.

The trail: it’s been a few years since I was up here the trail is in great condition. Really gently graded for the elevation gain. After the split with the longs pass trail this trail becomes more exposed (though still very moderate) and felt a bit steeper/had to watch my step more. The lake was lovely as always. I heard lots of talk about the last bit of trail being a scramble- but I didn’t find it to be much of one- it’s just steep. It was busy on the way up but nothing like how it was on the way down. Remember uphill hikers have right-of-way on trail. So coming down took a bit longer than anticipated with all the stepping out of the way.

Fall color: larches are peak! It was larch mania up there. There was some lovely bright ground cover turning red/yellow/orange too!

Returning to trailhead: parking situation had clearly gotten fast and loose as the day wore on as a number of cars parked where they shouldn’t be (see photo with sign to only park on the left). It was fully 2 miles of cars on the road heading out. Most parked out of the driving lane- a few were a bit in the way-do better!

All in all folks were very friendly and happy to be out seeing the magnificent larch! A different sort of day in the mountains- a more amusement park feel than normal.

Trail, views and Larch were fantastic. Parking and getting back out were not. Arrival at 8:00 am parking was already about a mile down the road which was fine I thought…just a little warm up walk to the trailhead, right? The problem is that once cars park along the road (even if they all park on the west side) there is only one lane so that two cars can’t pass. And as the morning progresses people park in any and all pull outs on the east side of the road so now no one can pull over anyplace to let cars pass. Later in the morning/early afternoon cars are leaving but cars are still trying to come in and no one can get in or out past each other. Multiple times lines of arriving cars were having to all back out for long distances. Or cars trying to exit had to back up for long distances but good luck getting out before another car try’s to enter!

There needs to be some limiting of access, a larger parking lot and no road parking allowed.

As a left I counted 493 vehicles.

Beautiful trail to see the larches. We camped the night before and arrived to the trailhead at 7 AM. The parking lot was already full, we parked on the side of the road but not too far from the parking lot.

The trail is rocky and the last 0.3 miles before getting to Lake Ingalls, is pretty much a scramble. Please be aware of that and read WTA description for this trail.

The scenery was amazing and ver beautiful. Foliages were at their peak and the weather was perfect. My GPS recording showed about 9.5 miles round trip.

Arrived Friday 5pm to overnight camp for a weekend backpacking adventure. Glad I came early; larch lookers in the hundreds. No worries, just packed my patience's with those who make a backpacker stop uphill with 35 pounds, ugh.

Trailhead great. Loved seeing WTA out there Saturday morning. Wish they were there Sunday to inform the people dogs are not allowed. Especially off leash dogs trampling the vegetation. I mean the people were doing their flower and larch photos off trail ass well - not a typo.

Dogs not allowed. Please respect the rules, they are there for a reason.

NO TP in bathroom, please pack a Kula cloth or your own TP. Don't put trash in bathrooms, thank you. LNT always.

Campsites are abundant, look around they are everywhere, just follow hard dirt paths and try to avoid stomping flowers if you can.

Toilet at the top good, again please don't put trash in there. Someone put a mountain house meal in there, opps I looked inside.

Lake was gorgeous. Difficult rocks but well worth the effort, my swim was refreshing.

I have day hiked and now backpacked here. Great place and might return, but probably head to other locations for exploration. Perfect first timer trip for overnight, only 4 ish miles to camps.

request! if you make it to Lake Ingalls can you keep an eye out for a pair of glasses. I think I left my blue-rimmed vision glasses in their tan/light brown case at the lake edge after taking a swim in the lake. (I'll include a photo of where). If you find them, please leave a comment!

trail conditions: 2 blown down trees in the first mile, but easily to climb over. Larches are at their peak, mostly deep golden with just a few trees that still have hints of lime green. People making cairns did great work and made it easier to stay on the trail between headlight basin and Lake Ingalls. Last year I felt like I was just scrambling over rocks for most of the way, but there is in fact a decent trail that disappears and reappears through the rocky terrain.

I got to the trail around 1pm on Friday and managed to get a good parking spot close to the parking as some people were leaving. I left the trail in the dark around 8pm and it looked like the trailhead lot was mostly full (lots of people backpacking). Please be careful parking on the road and only do so if there is room for cars to pass.