De Roux Creek to Gallagher Head Lake, Esmeralda Peak Loop, Fortune Creek Pass & Esmeralda Basin (Esmerelda) — Sunday, Oct. 9, 2022

Thanks to some prior trip reports from last year, I decided to piece this loop together.  Did it in the same direction, starting from the DeRoux campground, then walking upstream to the packed TH for Lake Ingalls.  It's peak larch madness time and as expected once all the Ingalls-bound hikers turned off things got very quiet on the Esmerelda Basin trail.  In fact, we saw ZERO hikers the rest of the day!  On a sunny Sunday.  We saw no on at all until we were at Gallagher Head lake, where a few guys on motorbikes were enjoying the scenery.  After chatting a bit, we headed down the DeRoux trail (very puffy and dusty) and came across one other motorbike group.  Everyone was very considerate and shut off their bikes to let us by in a narrow spot.

While it was great to be able to make a loop (~12miles), I would not do this again.  Once you descend the backside of Fortune Pass and hook onto the Jeep road, the climb up to Gallagher Head Lake was pretty awful.  Steep, dusty, rocky cobbles.  About a mile but you'll swear it's 3.  

On the plus side, I was really surprised that so many creeks were still flowing, at least a little bit.  Beautiful fall colors, interesting rocks, and weekend solitude were the highlights.