Lake Ingalls — Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024

A beautiful day and a great hike!

Got to the trailhead around 10am, which was absolutely packed. Not surprising at all given larch season and the beautiful weather. Cars were parked along the road for approximately 0.7 miles. If you're hiking next weekend, definitely leave early if you're hoping to get a spot close to the trailhead. There were just a couple spots starting to open as folks who were backpacking started to get back down. The road had just a couple small potholes- cars with average or higher clearance will do just fine.

The hike up was great- beautiful views the whole way after a brief section at the beginning in the trees. Just a couple of blowdowns near the beginning, and a couple spots toward the top with a little mud- both barely worth noting as they were easy to cross.

The lake was otherworldly. The water was a deep blue and Mt Stuart peacefully reflected on it was stunning. There were probably about 10+ groups at the lake at any given time, but there was plenty of room to spread out still.

And of course, the larches were absolutely beautiful! There are still some with a bit of green, but most of them seemed to have either fully turned or are very close.

After spending 30-45 at the lake, we set off for the trailhead and got back around 4pm. In total, the hike took around 6 hours with an average pace on the way up and slightly higher than average pace on the way down.