Jagged peaks of the Enchantments, larches everywhere, huge rock slabs, and 3 hours east of Seattle – it’s no wonder Lake Ingalls is a popular day hike. The beautiful fall colors of Headlight Basin make for an awesome (but very busy) fall adventure, as seen below:
We decided to make it an overnight trip by camping, with the goal of photographing a beautiful sunrise above the lake basin and exploring the next few days.
Key Information
- Location: 3 hours east of Seattle via I-90 / 1 hour north of Cle Elum, WA
- Road Conditions: AWD vehicle recommended for last 30 mins of gravel road, passable in 2WD
- Distance: 9 miles roundtrip
- Difficulty: Moderate – 2,500 ft elevation gain
- Typical Season: early July to mid October. There is also an abundance of larch trees (and crowds) in early and mid-October. With views like below.
- Insider Tips: Parking at the trailhead fills up on weekends. By 9.a.m., will be full and adds a long gravel road to your hike. All days in the fall are busy because of the larch/fall colors. Recommend arriving as early as possible if visiting on weekends or holiday weekdays.
Trip Report
As is life, the weather didn’t cooperate the first night for sunset or next day for sunrise. Contrary to the weather forecast for “partly sunny”, almost laughable in hindsight considering the heavy rain and wind all afternoon and night. I would estimate Lake Ingalls, near our campsite for the night, received over 2 inches of rain, just very cold and windy conditions for September. Which September can be really volatile, so this is not atypical.
Another reason to be prepared for all conditions while hiking in Washington, the weather forecast is notoriously inaccurate! As my hiking buddy and I were packing up our camp and deciding on whether to hike back to the trailhead (our gear was wet from a very rainy night), the clouds began to miraculously clear.
The rocky peaks emerged, like beacons of formidable hope in the storm. A whole new landscape emerged, revealing huge rock slabs and wind-shaped trees of Headlight Basin.
A landscape more reminiscent of high-alpine Colorado than rainy, forested Washington. It was amazing to see a place for the first time despite camping a mile down the basin for the night.
I loved the wind-shaped trees and endless rock slabs.
Once the weather started to clear up, was fun to explore the lake basin and watch the fog roll off the surrounding peaks.
There are plenty of rocks to carefully roam around on (non-vegetated surfaces) and get unique perspectives of Lake Ingalls. We scrambled up to the right side of the lake.
If you’re not experienced in Class 2 or 3 scrambling, or have no idea what I’m talking about, I would recommend sticking to the lake shore and enjoying the spectacular view from where the trail officially ends. This is a side trip that should be done only in dry conditions and with the proper gear/experience.
I enjoyed the unique perspective of the dark colors of the water and prime viewing of the wispy fog rolling through Ingalls Peak and nearby jagged mountains.
There was a persistent fog layer at around 6,000 to 8,000 feet that would not budge. Regardless, glimpses of the extremely steep rock face of Mt. Stuart is a memory I’ll never forget.
There was a light snow layer from the previous night’s rainstorm that turned snow at higher altitude. The surrounding peak is close to 9,000 feet, so very high altitude for being relatively close to the Pacific.
I looked back while exploring around the rock slabs and saw a clear view of Mt. Stuart, part of the appropriately named Enchantments. Rushing to change lenses to my telephoto, I kept eyeing the peaks with my jaw dropped.
I rushed through my backpack for my Canon 70-200mm f/4 lens, to zoom in as far as possible to capture the fog swirling around these magical peaks.
Often landscape photography can be improved by using a telephoto lens to focus on the subject. I really enjoyed the framing of the clouds around the peaks with vivid blue sky, as well as the light snow and silver tones of the landscape.
All around very dramatic conditions for photography of this unique mountain basin of the Cascades.
