Every summer, hordes of people I know will do a “circumnavigation” of Mount Daniel that follows the trail to Marmot and Jake Lakes then up the Lynch Glacier to the summit. Since the Lynch Glacier gets too broken up sometime in July, I’ve been saving this route for just this time of season.

First reflections on Squaw Lake

---

The pointy Cathedral Rock

---

First view of the first summit of the day, The Citadel, and the lower Deep Lake

---

Peggy’s Pond looking mighty clear today

---

Fall colors just starting!

---

Circle Lake with the Citadel now closer

---

Circle Lake looking at the Granite Mountain ridgeline

---

Mount Daniel massif!

---

Mount Hinman

---

Spade Lake with the classic peaks of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness

---

Rainier always there :)

---

Trying to beat the smoke coming from the east near the Stuart Range

---

Venus Lake

---

Another angle, the lake colors blowing my mind today

---

Cool looking slabs Bears Breast Mountain

---

Getting down the dead/fake glaciers on the north facing slopes meant dodging cracks like this

---

But at least you got to see cool glacier formations!

---

The steep flanks of Baring Mountain

---

The north side of Hinman

---

Pea Soup Lake and the north side of Mount Daniel

---

The Lynch Glacier, the most glaciated part of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness

---

Jade Lake, good memories here

---

Looking back at Dip Top Peak and the dead glacier that was quite icy to get down

---

Marmot Lake, last views before going heads down back to the car

---

Notes

• This was probably ~25 miles and 9200 feet of vertical gain in a little over 11 ½ hours.
• As mentioned before, I saved this route as an alternate to check out Mount Daniel once the Lynch Glacier is out for the season. However it appears there is also somewhat an optimal window to do this as well given that the dead “glaciers” were pretty arduous to get down (particularly Dip Top Gap), maybe it would be better in early August.