The highest spot on the highway from one end of the Coast to the other, and the one place where the road surface is measured.
Where Trout Lake sits, and the other places we attend
around Halfmoon Bay. Every name on the map is a link.
The highest point on Highway 101
Trout Lake sits beside Highway 101 in Electoral Area B, inland from Halfmoon Bay village, with a regional district park on the lake. Road routing on 12 September 2026 gave 24.5 kilometres and 27 minutes from here to Sechelt Hospital, the longest drive of the Halfmoon Bay neighbourhoods. The highway maintenance contractor is direct about what this stretch is. Tyler Lambert, speaking for Capilano Highway Services on why the province chose this site for equipment, said Trout Lake "has the most severe winter conditions of anywhere as it is the highest spot on the highway, from one end to the other."
The community plan, Bylaw 675, names Trout Lake and Homesite Creek as the recreation areas of the plan area (page 31), records trails running below the Sunshine Coast Highway opposite the lake (page 31), and identifies the old Halfmoon Bay School site on Trout Lake Road (page 32). Land at the base of Trout Lake Road is designated Rural Residential, a 1.75 hectare minimum or average parcel size that can be reduced to one hectare under specified conditions (page 24). Those are the largest residential lots in the plan area, and they sit at the foot of the climb.
The province measures the road surface here and nowhere else on the Coast
A road and weather station with a webcam, lighting and weather instruments was installed on the southbound side of Highway 101 at Trout Lake, across from the lake, in early September. It cost about $150,000. A Ministry of Transportation note dated 26 September said it would go live before winter, once BC Hydro finished bringing power to the tower. The station reports road surface temperature, air temperature, wind speed and direction, and precipitation. Capilano Highway Services asked for it, and no other weather stations are planned for the Sunshine Coast.
Before it was built, DriveBC had cameras at three Sunshine Coast locations, on Stewart, Brooks and Egmont Roads, plus two in qathet. For an owner this is the one point on the Coast where the road surface can be checked before setting out, and the point that will be worst.
The highway closes at this end of Halfmoon Bay
On 26 December 2025 downed hydro lines, brought down by a falling tree, closed Highway 101 in both directions between Trout Lake and Belair Roads. It reopened at 12:45 p.m. and Redrooffs Road carried the traffic in the meantime. On 24 August 2025, when a collision shut the highway near the south Redrooffs junction for more than six hours, residents took stranded drivers out through the logging roads behind Trout Lake.
Winter does the same job without a crash. On 3 and 4 February 2025 record-breaking snow fell on the Coast and hydro crews could not reach many areas. In the cold snap of December 2021 the temperature at Sechelt reached minus 11.6 degrees, against a previous record of minus 6.7 degrees set in 1971, and three areas of the Coast were still without power on 28 December.
The lake holds a water licence the district has looked at using
The regional district park is reached by taking the first Trout Lake Road from Highway 101, turning right at the yellow gate and following the road to the parking area. A short trail leads to the lake, where there is an outhouse, a picnic area, a viewing platform and a wheelchair-accessible path to a fishing platform. Fishing, swimming, kayaking and paddle boarding are permitted, gas-powered boats are not, and a freshwater licence is required. Regional district parks can be reached at 604-885-6802.
The community plan commits the district to "maintain both the water license on Trout Lake and the related infrastructure" (page 47). During the 2022 drought the district discussed with Vancouver Coastal Health what would be needed to bring the lake online to serve the Halfmoon Bay and Secret Cove areas, and was clear about the trade-off:
Access to that source may come with a boil water advisory because of the water quality from that source.
SCRD, on bringing Trout Lake into service during the 2022 drought
That drought ran long. Stage 4 restrictions were called on 31 August 2022 and were not lifted until 14 December 2022, 103 days later.
What a check at Trout Lake covers
Snow load on the roof, on carports and on decks, checked after every fall rather than at the end of winter
The driveway and its first fifty metres off the highway, where plough windrow and ice collect
Heat on and holding at the thermostat, or the house drained and the supply shut
Water supply at the tap, and the pump and pressure tank where the house is on a well
Pipes in unheated crawlspaces and pump houses, with attention to any run against an outside wall
Trees and limbs over the roof and over the service drop after wind or heavy snow
Doors, windows, sheds and the woodshed, with locks tried and tracks in snow noted
Propane tank level and the vent clear of drifted snow
Dated photographs of every item above, filed within hours of the visit
Most household policies limit how long an unoccupied house may go unchecked through the heating season, with four consecutive days the interval most often specified, and require a competent person to do the checking unless the water is off and the pipes drained. Wordings are not uniform, so look at the clause in your own policy.
What it costs
A scheduled check at Trout Lake is
$55 a visit, plus
$10 travel. The travel charge is the same
everywhere between Gibsons and Egmont. There is no minimum term and no joining fee.
See the full price list.
Where these facts come from
Every figure, date and quotation on this page was taken from one of these. They are
listed so you can read them yourself.
