Lovely long weekend in the mountain valley of Ingalls.
Day 1: arrived to a half-empty parking lot at Esmerelda and parked easily. Hot (91 degrees) start but once up at Ingalls Pass it got cooler and cooler with various shade. Terrible, terrible bugs at the lower camping area. Quiet neighbors. Got some astrophotography in. Night winds were intense but never got too cold.
Day 2: Summitted South Peak, no one else attempted. Pretty sketchy scrambling sections but nothing too risky. Started from camp at 830am and summitted by 1130am. Hiked down slowly and refilled water at upper camping area, then proceeded to go to the lake. Beautiful but crowded. Went in, very cold but refreshing and not that bad. Lovely weather with cloud cover helping with the UV and heat. Got back to camp around 3pm, had an early dinner and siesta. Loud, loud neighbors were an annoyance. Woke up around 830pm for nice sunset vibes but the bugs were still awful. Ended up just staying in the tent.
Day 3: Early morning had a beautiful sunrise on Mt. Stuart. Packed up pretty early and hiked out. Lots of people day-hiking in. Took less than 2 hours to get to the trailhead--very easy backpacking, generally.
Overall a lovely low key spot to hang out for a long weekend. Next time might try to traverse the ridgeline a bit, which also seems very accessible, though without significant water sources.
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