Lake Ingalls

We drove out to the Teanaways to hike up to Lake Ingalls on a beautiful fall day. This is a 9 mile round trip hike with 2,500 ft of elevation gain. The trailhead is located at the Esmeralda Trailhead at the end of FSR 1394.  The trail starts climbing immediately through the forest next to a creek. In 0.3 miles, the Ingalls Trail goes to the right, where the Esmeralda Basin Trail continues straight. After another 1.4 miles, the Ingalls Trail goes to the left and the trail to Longs Pass goes to the right. 

 As the trail climbs up, we had great views of some of the Teanaway peaks.

 Higher up the trail, we could see Mt Rainier and Mt Adams in the distance.

 We first saw the larch trees when we reached Ingalls Pass (about 3.5 miles from the trailhead)













From Ingalls Pass, the trail drops down into Headlight Basin, where the larch trees are in the beginning stages of turning golden. We had fabulous views of Mount Stuart today.










We decided to hike along the west side of the basin towards Lake Ingalls. There was a little snow left over from the last snowfall.

We found many beautiful places to stop and soak in the views.

My favorite view of Mount Stuart.

There are many larch trees in Headlight Basin.

We saw some mountain goats resting along the side of the trail.

There are many boulders on the other side of Headlight Basin, we were thankful for the cairns that showed the way.

After 1.5 miles, we dropped down into the small basin that holds Lake Ingalls (wide angle photo)

Mount Stuart reflected in Lake Ingalls

 Ingalls Peak reflected in Lake Ingalls

After a long lunch break we headed back out and decided to take the alternate trail across Headlight Basin, that drops down further into the basin. Looking across to Ingalls Pass

 We enjoyed walking through the larches and

 the many views we had of Mount Stuart.

On our hike back down the trail, we were fortunate to see a pine marten. We also saw lots of pica today along with a couple of grouse.