Summary: Tons of golden larches at their splendor on a blue sky day! Tons of people; had to park 0.7 miles from the trailhead at 8:30am. Rock scramble on the last bit to Lake Ingalls.
We arrived at 8:30am Saturday and though over half a mile from the trailhead, cars were lining up on the side of the road, so we did too. Unfortunately, one of our carpool cars and some other hopefuls drove further but soon the true parking situation could not be denied. The problem was, with cars lining the road, it was very difficult to turn around and they had to fight through other incoming cars to find a spot much farther away. My advice: if it's early, park at the end of the line right away and walk whatever distance is required rather than trying to get lucky. This unfortunately added an extra 0.7 miles to each end of our hike. We waited 15 minutes for those from the other car to get back to our spot. While we were waiting, some of us got in line for the single pit toilet, which took 20 minutes. The latecomers just found a good tree.
The entire trail to Ingalls Pass (just before the larches) was a steady climb. There was one blow down, but not too hard to pass. The first third of the trail through a thin forest with occasional views of the surrounding peaks. There are some periodic fall color displays from the ferns, huckleberries (I think) and grasses. On the middle section of the trail, you are high enough in elevation to get great views of the nearby red rock peaks and distant peaks as far as Mount Rainier. This section of the trail was also quite narrow, and because it was cutting against a steep hillside, it was difficult to set off the trail to make room for others. This is where my party started getting winded, and the vigorous hikers behind us kept needing to pass, and the early birds were descending and needing to pass. We definitely felt the crowds here. There was not much in the way of fall colors here ... and then it happened all at once: larches, larches, golden larches as soon as we reached the high point at 4 miles. *And* towering Mount Stuart came into view as an amazing backdrop. From here we took the high road to Lake Ingalls, which I highly recommend as there is less elevation change than the low road. Also, it seems that there are way more larches on the high road. We took our time over the next 0.7 miles through and near the larches and we could not stop taking pictures of them in their splendid fall color. The blazing sun in the clear blue sky made them sparkle even more. There were some good camp spots in this area with people taking full advantage, but it was definitely not overcrowded with campers in case you are considering. The next 0.3 miles was a bit of route finding and a bit of scramble to get to the pass to the lake. The last part was quite steep and required all four limbs. The lake was very pretty, but looked kind of barren with its absence of vegetation after the wonder we had just experienced. Some brave souls were swimming in the ice cold water. We returned the way we came, sometimes like a line of ants. Please remember to yield the trail to those on the uphill (though try not to trample plants), and be cognizant if you are in a group like we were, to let the faster hikers pass you. We got back to the trailhead all smiles even with the extra distance to get to our cars. Some cars were much worse than us and surely were parked a mile and a half from the trailhead.
Delwin Elder
