Elevation Gain: 17.1m
Distance: 0.28km
Total Time: 28 minutes
Date: October 9th, 2022
Mount Buchanan is a 1912m summit that overlooks Kaslo and Kootenay Lake from the West. It’s famous for housing an old fire lookout that was operated from 1941 to 1982. Adding its popularity, the summit is accessible via an ~12km service road that will take you all the to within 15m of the summit. Despite the lack of much hiking, it makes for a super a nice viewpoint and pleasant outing. My family and I were hoping to get outside for a little bit and take advantage of nice weather so this seemed like the perfect spot to do it.
To gain the summit, we simply drove for ~15 minutes West of Kaslo and then followed the Buchanan Lookout signs all the way to the top. The road was in great condition for any 4×4 equipped vehicle with some decent clearance and we reached the top after ~30 minutes.
Once at the summit it’s a 30 second walk to the top, so I’ll let the photos do the rest of the work.
