An optical distance measurement apparatus comprises a system controller for controlling the entire operation of a system, a light emitting circuit for emitting a high-power pulse light beam as a distance measuring medium to an object in response to a drive signal from the system controller, a light receiving circuit for receiving a light beam reflected from the object, a trigger signal generation circuit for generating a trigger signal indicative of a start time point for measurement of a light moving time, and a time-distance conversion circuit for measuring the light moving time in response to the trigger signal from the trigger signal generation circuit and in response to an output signal from the light receiving circuit, and for converting the measured light moving time into a distance to the object. The time-distance conversion circuit obtains a time difference between the trigger signal from the trigger signal generation circuit and the output signal from the light receiving circuit and converts the obtained time difference into the distance to the object.