Rating:  2 of 5 stars
My opinions:  Below average hike.  Not too difficult.  Not very good views.  Lake is nice, but compared to Lake Ingalls (a 5 out of 5 hike, but it is more difficult).  Not worth the drive. 
I don’t recommend this hike, unless maybe (1) you have kids or (2) live close to this trailhead.
Parking & Road Conditions: Overall bad.  The road to the trailhead is wash boarded.  In a Subaru Forrester, it took us an hour from Cle Elum to the trail head.  However, the road is passable for sedans, if you go slowly.  Parking was pretty crowded at 10:30 on a Friday.  Maybe 6 spaces left.  This parking area has about 6 trail heads leaving from this area.
Snow:  None.
Trail & trail conditions:  Fine.  The the Cathedral Rock trailhead, which is the first group of parking areas.
Bugs:  Mosquitoes were an annoyance, but not too bad.  I had on DEET and they did not bother me.  My hiking partner did not put any DEET on and he got bit around the lake.
Time: Two 60 years old took about 5.5 hours total.  This included walking around the lake twice.  We got to the rocks and turned around, then went back to the rocks the other way. 
Views:  Okay lake views. 
Tip:  The only nice view from the lake was next to the rocks, which was half way around the lake.
Flowers:  Some wild flowers at the very beginning, next to the parking lot.

See additional links below for more trip photos.

This finally happened eight years after our initial visit! It had been confirmed in a recent conversation that my friend and I never actually made it to the main summit in that one terrible whiteout. Nice to revisit and cross the mountain off my redo list. This time yellow pup graciously offered to accompany me on my quest for the true summit.

After yesterday’s short conditioner, we drove to Tucquala Meadows and car camped at the trailhead for an early start. Our arrival didn’t seem to faze the several deer hanging around the area. They obviously had gotten accustomed to seeing humans…and junk food. At times they were getting a little too close for comfort even with the pup around. About two dozens cars in both parking lots combined.

We had hiked the Cathedral Pass Trail two years ago on the way to Lynch Peak and Dip Top Peak. Dip Top Gap had one of the best camp spots, with front row seat view of the imposing Mount Daniel and Pea Soup Lake. Snow patches before Squaw Lake, followed by small snow fields between the lake and junction with the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT).

Snow free past the junction and all the way around west of Cathedral Rock, then more snow before reaching Peggys Pond. Several tents by the pond as we quickly hiked passed. The only group of campers we saw had a campfire going. Guess they didn’t take the “no campfires above 4,000/5,000 feet” restrictions that seriously.

Lots of boot tracks in the snow and no route finding issues in getting onto the east ridge. Three skiers were spotted skiing down the east basin as we ascended the ridge. Two groups came down when we arrived at the 6,960′ saddle above Circle Lake. I chatted with another group of two on the east slopes toward east peak. Crampons were used through this section.

The notch between east peak and Point 7662 provided access into the west side. We then traversed the steep southwest slopes of east peak to the west saddle at 7,640′. From there we climbed a short distance onto middle summit’s southeast ridge. With crampons off, we traversed the ridge on some scree and lots of talus up to the middle summit.

Up until now the sun had been going in and out of the clouds. Visibility wasn’t great, but I sure was glad there were no signs of rain despite iffy weekend weather forecast. From middle summit we got an obscured look at the main summit to the west. Voices were heard coming from the main summit.

A quick photo break and we were off to our final destination–main summit! Clouds made it hard to tell how close the main summit was, but it only took us 10 to 15 minutes to get there. Voices we heard were those of the three skiers getting ready to ski down Lynch Glacier. I left snow gear at the base of the summit block and proceeded to scramble to the top.

It got windy really fast after we summited. Fast-moving clouds made it possible to catch a glimpse of nearby high points every so often. Sky above us even cleared up a few times, but the clouds never lifted to provide a panoramic view of the area. Again, I was just glad that the rain never came and we were at least able to see some things from the top!

We spent a good while on the summit waiting out the clouds to get some decent photos before heading back down. Before long we were back at Peggys Pond and uneventfully headed down the trail back to Tucquala Meadows.

Access: Cathedral Pass Trailhead
Gear: helmet, ice axe, crampons

Headed out for a late fall hike hoping to find some snow to frolick in. The road to the trail head is mostly ok. The trickiest part was having to drive through Scatter Creek which seemed to be running kind of high (this was my first time here so I have nothing to compare it to, but I wasn't expecting it). Fortunately there was a car ahead of me that crossed, so I figured I would be ok in my little CR-V. Several potholes and big puddles, but nothing else too crazy.

There was snow at the trailhead, but the trail up until the junction with the trail to Waptus Lake was largely free of snow. Then the trail was mostly covered between there and Squaw Lake.

The lake had a thin layer of ice on it and was a lovely sight on such a lovely sunny day. After snapping some photos and letting my dog get a drink, we continued up the trail toward Cathedral Rock. Due to a late start and a long drive home, we didn't make it all the way to the rock, but we did get some nice views of the peaks on the other side of the meadow. I definitely want to make it back here with more time to get to Cathedral Rock and Peggys Pond.

Backpacked to Squaw Lake with my girlfriend where we camped for two nights, and day hiked to Cathedral pass and along the PCT on our day in between. All in all very beautiful and relatively quiet. 

ROAD CONDITIONS: As previously mentioned, the last 12 miles of the drive is an extremely bumpy dirt road with many potholes and a stream crossing. We were able to make the drive and stream crossing in my low-clearance, very stiff Hyundai compact by going very slowly (took about 80 minutes), so I would say it is doable in most all vehicles but be forewarned it can be a painfully long drive if you don't have a high-clearance vehicle with good suspension.

BUGS: Mosquitoes were very bad along the trail and at the lake. I would recommend wearing long pants/sleeves and possibly even a head net if you are sensitive to bites.

The road was real bumpy but manageable in just about any car.  There is a stream ford that I would recommend a higher clearance vehicle for but we saw some sedans that made it the whole way to the trailhead.

I'll break this down according to the different trails listed on WTA:

Squaw Lake

The trail to Squaw lake was a bit wet requiring a bit of rock hopping just after the trailhead, but nothing terrible.  There were a few blowdowns but nothing to hard to surmount (and we were carrying 40+ lb packs with skis sticking off of them...). The area around the lake is fully melted out and looks like it offers some awesome camping.

Cathedral Rock

After you pass Squaw lake the trail begins to climb further and is in a bit worse condition.  More water flowing down the trail and a couple of blowdowns requiring searching for the trail on the other side.  Again nothing horrendous.  In addition there are intermittent patches of snow on the trail with some running water. I post-holed through one of them.  Stuff to watch out for but not overly dangerous.

Peggy's Pond

Past the turn off to Peggy's pond the trail becomes less of a trail and requires a bit of easy scrambling and screen traverses. Few Snow patches left but easy enough to pass in trail runners.  The pond itself is not fully melted out but it's getting there.  Plenty of snow surrounding too, a few dry tent pads but not many.  Also, LOTS OF BUGS.

Mount Daniel

Our goal was climbing and skiing Mount Daniel, so we pushed past the pond to bivy high on the mountain (and avoid the bugs).  We took the Hyas Creek 'glacier' drainage and ascended a snow couloir below the east summit.  It will probably still go for awhile.  Our original plan was to pass under the spire on the North East ridge of the East peak to gain the Daniel Glacier but there were cracks that would've made the skiing annoying.  Instead we headed up the standard route to the summit of the east peak.  We found a flat spot ~200ft below the summit to bivy on and there were even 2 other skiers bivied on the summit.  We enjoyed a run in the evening off the east peak summit for ~600 ft.   The sunset/sunrise from high on the mountain was spectacular.  The next morning we traverse to the middle and west peaks using crampons and axes on some steep snow traverses and then booting the snow & screen once it warmed up.  After hanging out on the west (true) summit we skied a few hundred feet down the east face and then headed back over to the Daniel Glacier for the money run of the day, 1500ft of uninterrupted fall line skiing with 0 crevasses (we had glacier gear to be safe but it was chill).  After that we headed SE up a couloir off the east ridge of Daniel. From the top we were able to ski our up track more or less back to Peggy's Pond.

Stats: 17mi, ~7k gain ~4k of skiing

GPS track linked below