Buntzen Lake, located in the Village of Anmore near Belcarra Regional Park, is named after Johannes…read moreBuntzen, the first general manager of BC Electric Company, predecessor to BC Hydro. The lake is a BC Hydro reservoir and the lake and surrounding area is maintained by BC Hydro.
There are beaches and many hiking trails, making the Buntzen Lake recreation area a very popular destination. Due to its popularity, a parking pass is needed from mid-May to Labour Day in September. The parking passes are free, but it can be extremely difficult to get one. However, in the summer, from the end of April to Labour Day, the #179 bus departs from Coquitlam Central Station (Bay 12) every half an hour and goes to Buntzen Lake, but only on weekends and holidays. (It would be so nice if there was year round transit, or at least from March to October, and if during the summer, it wasn't limited to only weekends and holidays.) Due to the limited parking, it's actually far easier to bus there in the summer instead of driving, and you can park for $3, all day, at Coquitlam Central Station. Just take transit!
The Buntzen Lake Loop is 10km and approximately three hours, and there is a beach area with picnic tables and clean outhouses along the route. I started a transit accessible hiking group in the summer of 2023, and I went hiking at Buntzen Lake for the first time in May 2024. Due to transit only being available in the summer months on weekends and holidays, I am limited as to when I can go, and so far I have gone seven times -- twice in 2024, twice in 2025, and three times this year.
Apparently people go counter-clockwise around the lake, but the first time we went, none of us knew where exactly the start of the trail was located, and we ended up going clockwise. However, we all enjoyed hiking the trail clockwise, so we always go clockwise, which has its benefits: the hardest part is at the beginning, not the end; the west side is more exposed so it's better to do the east side, which has more tree canopy, last, when the sun is hotter; the beach, where we stop for lunch, is at the two hour mark, instead of one hour; and we don't get caught up in other groups of hikers, since everyone is going in the opposite direction.
The first six times I have gone to Buntzen Lake, we have done the Buntzen Lake Loop. However, this last time, which was August 22, 2026, we tried the Lakeview Trail. The Lakeview Trail parallels the west side of the Buntzen Lake Loop Trail, and while the trail isn't terribly difficult, it is slightly more difficult and longer than the west side of the Buntzen Lake Loop Trail, and because we were taking our time exploring a new trail, it took us three, instead of two hours, to get to the beach area, making our total hiking time four hours. It was such a nice hike and far less busy than the Buntzen Lake Loop Trail. I can't wait to do this hike again next summer!
There are so many other trails in the Buntzen Lake recreation area, such as the Diez Vistas Trail which is very popular, but I need to work my way up to that.
[Yelp collections: Hiking]