Pavilion Mountain

Pavilion Mountain is a mountain in the Marble Range in the South Cariboo region of the South-Central Interior of British Columbia, Canada, located northeast of the ranching and First Nations community of Pavilion and to the north of Marble Canyon and immediately south of Kelly Lake, which is the focus of Downing Provincial Park. The term Pavilion Mountain is also used to refer to the historic ranch and associated rangeland on the "bench" on the mountain's southwestern side, and also to the road which traverses that benchland and the mountain's western shoulder and is the route of the Old Cariboo Road. The switchback descent from the summit of the road was known as the Rattlesnake Grade and was an infamous stretch of the old wagon road. From a junction at the road-summit, a road leads east along the spine of the mountain to the peak, which is the site of a microwave relay and former fire lookout. The mountain's only named subpeak, Mount Carson, at 2005 metres (6578 ft, prominence: 120 m), is southeast of the fire lookout and is named for the original owner of the ranch and was briefly misapplied as the name of Pavilion Mountain. Robert Carson was one of the first settlers in the region and whose sons later became prominent MLAs and provincial cabinet ministers. The north wall of Marble Canyon is essentially the southeast buttress of Pavilion Mountain.

To the east are the Trachyte Hills, to the north across Cut-Off Valley is the rest of the Marble Range, the highest summit of which is Mount Bowman and which includes the Edge Hills, which form the Fraser Canyon's east wall in that area, just as the rangeland of Pavilion Mountain forms the east wall in the area of Moran. South and southwest across the valley of Pavilion Creek and Pavilion Lake, which lies within Marble Canyon Provincial Park, is the Clear Range and east of it the broad basin and range-country of Upper Hat Creek, which has views northward to the summit of Pavilion Mountain and the north wall of Marble Canyon.

Check out a downloadable 3D model of Pavilion Mountain area. A higher resolution model can be found in the PeakVisor mobile app.