I hiked to Lake Ingalls yesterday with four friends of mine.
We got to the Parking lot about 08:30, after being stopped by a Kittitas Co. Sheriff at the Y where the pavement ends, and then queuing up with 7-8 other cars to caravan to the trail head. Evidently an advertisement was being filmed (I don’t know if this is actually true), so there were lots of people, cars and police cars along the first few miles of the road. Being in a car caravan like this made the dust horrendous. I don’t know how all of the filming people could stand it, as there must have been 20-30 of them.
We arrived at the parking lot at the end of the road at 09:30, and started hiking at 09:55. It was nice and cool in the morning shade, and our party got kind of strung out along the trail as clothing was shedded and water breaks taken, but we all ended up at Ingalls Pass at about the same time. The views looking back at the Esmerelda Peaks were beautiful, with the light and shadows constantly changing as the day progressed. The AQI wasn’t bad, so all of the mountains were pretty crisp looking all morning. The trail was dusty, but it didn’t rise much above our knees, so breathing was not a problem.
Once we got over Ingalls Pass and into Headlight Basin we walked through a forest of Western Larches that were absolutely stunning, at the peak of their color change and still looking pretty hydrated. The mixed meadow and forest was very park-like for the first quarter mile or so, with small streams still running through the meadow areas, which were very green despite the summer drought.
When we got to the boulder field at the head of the basin, the footing got a little more rough, but we could still hear — and sometimes see — water running under the rocks. There were no mountain goats evident at the large swale of grasses bisecting the talus slope, but we did see a ptarmigan in its summer plumage there, which seemed untroubled by our presence. My friends thought they saw several more about 50 yards away, possibly chicks, but they weren’t sure.
There was a pile-up of people at the choke point where the trail turned into a scramble up the rocks to the ridge top between Headlight Basin and the Lake Ingalls cirque, but that was the only place that happened all day. Once we overtopped the ridge, we got a peek-a-boo look at Lake Ingalls and a good view of Ingalls Peak.
The difference between the lush plant life of Headlight Basin with the lack of plant life around the lake was pretty profound. The rocks were barren. There was a sense of timelessness being there. The only other living things we saw while at the lake (other than people) were a couple of crows or ravens chasing each other, and what may have been an osprey flying high overhead. I don’t recall even seeing any lichen there, although I may not have been looking close enough.
We ate lunch and then departed the lake for our return journey. On the way back we saw five mountain goats on the grassy area of the talus slope at the head of Headlight Basin. It looked like two mother goats with their kids (one each), plus one other goat. I have no idea how to tell males from females, so I don’t know what the fifth one was.
There was a boulder — I think it was serpentine — that was a deep blue-gray color with little specs of yellow lichen on the upper part of the Headlight Basin trail in the boulder field. It was very cool looking.
The AQI was getting worse as the day wore on, and on the way back all of the mountains were becoming less distinct. I did see one ground squirrel on the way down to the trailhead. We got back to the car about 15:30, with tired feet, but glad we had hiked this trail at the peak of the fall Larch color change, interspersed with the greens of the firs and pines. It’s a beautiful, rewarding hike.
Comments