Snowshoe Lake

Region

Kootenays

Management unit

MU 4-32

Species

Rainbow Trout (last recorded 1988), Brook TroutThe province's newest fish record here is from 1988.Species from the province's fish observation records and angling reports.

Lake size

Small Water (< 50 ha)

Coordinates

49.918552, -118.177331

A year is when the Province last recorded the fish here, not a statement that it is caught today.

7.3 km of traced road to the campground by way of Snowshoe Lake Rd, Barnes Creek FSR and Whatshan Settlement Rd. The road at the end is a rough surface. It stops 960 m short of the campground.

Coordinates: 49.918552, -118.177331

Camping and rec sites at Snowshoe Lake

• Snowshoe Lake

  Campsites

  3 designated

  To the shore

  47 m

  
  Access: Access: From the Needles Rest Area at the ferry terminus, travel west on Highway 6 for 14.4 km.Just before the highway crosses Inonoaklin Creek, turn right onto a 4 wheel drive gravel road. Follow this road through the gravel pit onto a rough dirt road. After crossing a cattle guard at 1.5 km the road forks. Take the right fork, marked with a brown 4x4 post with white lettering, signed "Snowshoe Lake". Continue along this road for another 3 km to the recreation site. Alternate Access: From the Needles Rest Area at the ferry terminus, travel west on Highway 6 for 4.4 km. Turn right onto the "Whatshan Lake Road". At the junction with the Barnes Creek road, turn left and cross over the Whatshan River. Just past the power station, which is at the "7 km" marker on the "Barnes Creek Forest Service Road", turn left onto the "Snowshoe Lake Road", which is marked with a white and red sign, nailed to a tree. Proceed 1.4 km. Turn left onto a road marked "Branch 1". Proceed 1.5 km to just past a "10 km" yellow and black marker on the right hand side of the road. Turn right onto a narrow, dirt 2 wheel drive road that follows the power lines for 2 km to Snowshoe Lake. Note: the last 1.6 km is very steep, narrow and rutted, suitable for high clearance 2 wheel drive vehicles in dry weather.
  Coordinates: 49.916401, -118.177037

  The site on Recreation Sites and Trails BC

19.8 mdeepest8.7 mmean

Snowshoe Lake runs to 19.8 m (65 ft) at its deepest, by the Province survey, 1980.

The mean of 8.7 m (29 ft) is read off the same chart, surveyed in April 1980.

The Province sounded Snowshoe Lake and published the depth chart surveyed in 1980.

• Depth chart (PDF)

Modelled from air temperature, not an ice report. It says nothing about whether ice will hold you.

In the model Snowshoe Lake froze in 65 of the 65 winters since 1960. Freeze-up falls most years between 12 November and 29 November, and ice-off between 20 March and 11 April. The median winter freezes on 23 November and opens on 1 April.

the middle half of modelled winters the median ice cover in the median winter

Winter 2024-25 in the model: frozen from 26 November 2024 to 26 March 2025, 120 days.

We have no ice fishing regulation on file for Snowshoe Lake either way. Check the current BC Freshwater Fishing Regulations Synopsis before you plan a trip.

Whether a lake is open to ice fishing says nothing about whether its ice will hold you. Ice conditions vary year to year and across a single lake. Check locally before going out, every time.

Averaged over a year, the air above Snowshoe Lake is 0.9 C warmer than it was in the 1960s. That is 66 years of daily readings, not a forecast.

• +0.9 Csince the 1960s
• 3.0 Caverage year now
• 2.2 Caverage year then
• -5 daysbelow freezing, change

Open Snowshoe Lake in the app

• Whatshan Lake 17 km away
• Holmes Lake 24 km away
• Keefer Lake 26 km away
• Lower Arrow Lake 31 km away
• Bisson Lake 34 km away

All 162 lakes in the Kootenays, with today's conditions on each.

• How the score works
• Depth, and where the trout are
• A year on a trout lake
• Fishing chironomids
• Reading a depth chart
• Trout and char of BC lakes
• Camping at rec site lakes
• Winterkill explained
• When the ice goes off