What's The Deal with Mount Daly?

All About the Iconic Mountain Overlooking Snowmass

You can't miss it. The flat-ish topped peak with a small notch in it. The wide diagonal stripe across is distinctive. It is an iconic peak that greets every visitor as they drive into the village. While Snowmass is surrounded by 14ers like Snowmass Mountain and Capitol Peak, Mount Daly rises to 13,300 feet, just 700 feet shy of the fame and glory of 14er distinction. While Daly’s elevation keeps it under the radar, its aesthetic is far from discreet.

The Stripe

The peak’s southwest face features a large diagonal stripe of lighter rock visible even from the village that scientists call a geologic dike. Basically, this stripe is a sheet of rock formed in a fracture of an older body of rock. When magma flowed into a large fissure on Mt. Daly, it left behind an intrusion of igneous rock. The mountain’s two narrow ridges, or arêtes, were formed when two glaciers diverged from the same point.

The Name

Named after a National Geographic Society president, Augustus Daly, Mt. Daly doesn’t see near the traffic that it’s next-door neighbor Capitol Peak draws. It’s a long haul from the Capitol Lake Trailhead—almost 14.5 miles and just over 4,000 feet of climbing—climbing Mt. Daly in a day is only common for experienced and fit peak baggers, like Augustus Daly himself.

The Best View

Lucky for visitors and locals alike, there are plenty of incredible vistas for viewing Mt. Daly in all its glory. We recommend hiking up Rim Trail South in the late afternoon, when sun beams cut across the valley below Mt. Daly and the last light hits the far side of Snowmass Ski Area.