Twenty years ago to the month since my last and only visit to the Ingalls Peak region, I visited this hike again, this time on a lark on a late July Friday. Ingalls Lake and Ingalls Peak are located in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness area of Washington State. It's on the dry eastern side of the Cascade Range, up the North Fork of the Teanaway river.

The late July weather couldn't have been nicer; around 75F with a cool breeze and brilliantly sunny. The bugs were happy doing what bugs do when they're not biting - except for a few mosquitos in some damp valley areas. This was a nice respite from the very hot, very dry mid-90's temperatures we were experiencing in the Seattle area only days before. Since this is a relatively easy access hike off of a well-graded 13 mile dirt road not far from I-90, I semi-expected summer crowds. They were minor and everyone respected others' space on this Friday afternoon.

The trail to Ingalls Lake begins at the Esmeralda Basin trailhead. It reaches the Alpine Lakes Wilderness boundary at about 3-1/2 miles from the trailhead. From this pass, the hike to the lake is about 1-1/2 miles further north.

There is an alternative trail from the pass at the wilderness boundary. This alternative route to the lake drops down into the valley below Headlight Creek basin to some beautiful campsites. It rejoins the original Ingalls Lake trail below the lake just before the final scramble up to it begins. This alternative route provides a nice, small return loop trip for the day hiker and I'd recommend it.

It's funny to look back at my old page for this hike and recognize how much I had gotten things wrong (and right), writing the description 17 years after I took it. This will be my new page for this hike, but I'll provide a link to the old (and flawed) site below.

Disclaimer:
Most of my hike descriptions are fairly accurate even if many of trips were taken in the late 80's and early 90's. Several though may include some unfortunate errors due to poor memory and poorer documentation. Other hike descriptions which are suspect from my main Washington page include the Jewel Lakes, Larch Lakes, and Lake Caroline (photos). The rest are pretty safe.

Old Ingalls Peak Page