Mountain Goats and Golden Larches - Lake Ingalls

View from Ingalls Pass, Central Cascades, WA

October happens to be one of the few months of the year when nature undergoes a significant change and serves a colorful feast for the eyes.  One of its 'treats' is the larch tree, a rare conifer that turns golden and loses its needles in the Fall.  Here, in the great PNW, the larches 'hang' high in the mountains and it takes a real hike to see them in their golden glory.

This October, we visited Lake Ingalls, considered by many to be one of the best destinations for golden larch views, and had the pleasure of some very close encounters with the goat kind.

Interestingly, driving on the way to the trail head, we could smell smoke and later we saw some smoke still filling up the valley, but it turned out that this was due to the so called 'controlled burn' fires in the area and did not affect our hike at all as the air above was crystal clear.

"I have looked on the hills of the stormy North,
And the larch has hung his tassels forth."

- Felicia Hemans