Lake Ingalls — Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2022

It's larch season!

Left Seattle at 5 AM and got to the trailhead around 7:20 and the lot was at least half full. The people 💛 larches!

The toilet was clean-ish. Garbage can was full and there was NO TOILET PAPER. Hopefully by putting that in all caps that'll help at least one person out. Otherwise fine. #alwaysreviewthetoilet.

Trail a bit dusty, as you'd expect late summer (or a fall without rain). I didn't find the dust to be slippery at all - that's good. Make sure to bring sunscreen & plenty of water though - you're not in the trees much.

We took a left at Ingalls Pass (the way WTA describes the route) and glad we did because in addition to the larches - we saw a mom with 3 baby goats... who decided to hold up traffic as they grazed on the trail for 15 minutes. Adorable.

The larches are probably prime time right now. So pretty.

I'm not a big scramble fan - but the one to get to the lake is fine. Hardest part is following the trail. Keeping an eye for the cairns is easier than messing w/ All Trails or Gaia.

Parking lot full with maybe 30 cars on the side of the road when we finished the hike at around 1:00 PM. But it didn't seem like the trail was crowded. I think a lot of that is being prepared for having friends on the trail. Everybody was amazing though.