
Cottonwood Lakes Trailhead.

A long walk through the forest.


A stream crossing.

A meadow.


New Army Pass Trail heads left, Cottonwood Lakes and Old Army Pass goes right (my route).

Heading up to the Cottonwood Lakes.

View back.

Approaching Cottonwood Lakes.

Mount Langley top right, Cirque Peak top left.

Close-up toward Cirque Peak (left). New Army Pass is in the center.

Mount Langley right of center.

The trail winds around the Cottonwood Lakes.

View back toward one of the Cottonwood Lakes.

Mount Langley ahead.

Old Army Pass on the left.

Cottonwood Lake #4. Old Army Pass left of center. The trail is hard to see until you're basically right on it.

Old Army Pass above.

View back toward the upper Cottonwood Lakes.

A wide shot back toward Cottonwood Lake #4 before the switchback up to Old Army Pass.

Old Army Pass ahead.

View back.

If there's snow it can definitely be a bit treacherous.

At Old Army Pass, view back.

Old Army Pass, welcome to Sequoia National Park.

Along the trail leading to Mount Langley.

View back toward Old Army Pass (left). Cirque Peak poking out on the far right.

Mount Langley ahead.

View back, Cirque Peak top left.

At the base of Mount Langley, just before it starts to ascend steeply.

Shot back along the trail, Cirque Peak top left.

Close-up west toward some distant peaks in the Sierra.

Starting up the sandy social trail.

Another shot back, Cirque Peak top right. Olancha Peak distant center.

After a few steep hundred feet of hiking, a short flat section. Ahead is the only Class 2 move on the route, visible left of center. The trail leads right to it.

Top of the short Class 2 section, view back toward the flat section.

A view west as I start up the steep southwest slope of Mount Langley.

Heading up.

View back. Cirque Peak visible left. I'm on one of many options for social trails.

Close-up toward Cirque and the many options for social trails to ascend Mount Langley.

Continuing up.

A few hundred feet from the summit, the terrain becomes less steep. A final view of the ascent route before the view is obscured.

Easy walking to the summit.

Mount Langley summit, view southeast.

Mount Langley summit view north.

Close-up north, Mount Whitney top right.

Back at Old Army Pass, I followed a social trail to the popular New Army Pass Trail.

View along the New Army Pass Trail switchbacks, view back toward Mount Langley.


New Army Pass, view back toward Mount Langley.

New Army Pass, view toward Cirque Peak and the rim I'll be hiking to reach it.

New Army Pass, view down toward the pretty lakes below and the trailhead somewhere in the center. If you don't care to get Cirque Peak, heading down the trail from New Army Pass would be the way to go.

Onward to Cirque Peak. It starts off as a faint social trail, then progresses to easy talus walking.

The talus gets larger and requires some boulder-hopping.

View along the rim.

Summit of Cirque Peak. View back along the rim, Mount Langley visible top right.

Close-up of Mount Langley.

Cirque Peak summit, view down toward the lakes.

Cirque Peak summit, view south along the ridge I chose to descend.

Heading down the north ridge. I started descending from the ridge before the bump in the center.

Easy walking down.

View back toward Cirque Peak.

I descended fully to the Cottonwood Pass Trail when the slop looked like this, a really fun and quick descent.

View west as I descend.

Along the Cottonwood Pass Trail.

View back as I continue along the Cottonwood Pass Trail.

Chicken Spring Lake. The southern ridge coming down from Cirque Peak visible on the left.

Heading down to Chicken Spring Lake.

Along the Cottonwood Pass Trail.

The trailhead is left of the meadow on the left. There were a bunch of short switchbacks here to get down to the valley below.

Along the switchbacks.

The Cottonwood Pass Trail continues into the valley below.

Another forest walk.

Nearing the Cottonwood Pass Trailhead.


I reached a junction before the Cottonwood Pass Trailhead, where I kept left to get back to my car at the Cottonwood Lakes Trailhead. On the way, I passed an Equestrian campground.
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