Hiking Ice Capades - Grotto Canyon

Oh the weather outside was frightful, but now the sun's delightful. Last week was a perfect combination of a deep freeze snap in the mountains followed by warm Chinook sunshine that makes for ideal winter hiking conditions. The ice is frozen, the snow is not too deep and the warmth of the sun keeps the bite of the wind at bay.

Off to Kananaskis we went to trek a frozen river canyon. The Grotto Canyon trail is a relatively easy, short out and back hike from a parking lot with good signage and an outhouse. From the parking lot to the waterfalls is about two kilometres (four km round trip). We added a short jaunt through a side canyon to a sediment pyre with a cavern for an extra two kilometres.

The trail starts off following the power lines by a mineral (MgO magnesium oxide) plant. It's noisy and not altogether scenic, but the best is yet to come.

The start of the trail proper holds a beautiful view of the Kanaskis valley before you descend into the canyon.

Let the ice capades begin! Micro spikes or crampons and poles are highly recommended if you're doing the winter hike. We saw lots of kids in sleds in tow or sliding down steep sections which was brilliant if not unsurprisingly hazardous.

You begin by walking up the frozen riverbed at the mouth of the canyon.

As you wind your way around, the surrounding walls grow higher. Look up and you'll see tons of rock climbing anchors and carabiners in the wall faces.

After a few twists and turns and very little elevation gain, you'll be greeted with the canyon walls opening to your first glimpse of the frozen waterfalls.

There are two waterfalls bursting from the rock face - if you look closely above the one on the left, you can see where the water has cut a channel in the mountain and disappears behind ledge. The waterfalls emerge lower down straight out of the cliff wall. This is a popular spot for ice climbing - all three falls had at least one climbing pair on them.

We went for a wander through the part of the canyon that extends to the left of the leftmost waterfall. It was a small section of high-walled canyon that opened to a rocky ravine. The landscape smoothed out and provided a view of the surrounding mountains.

The most noteworthy sight was a cavern in the base of a sediment spire. I'm not sure if it is man made or natural. There was someone in the cavern the whole time we sat for our snack at its base. I wondered what they could be up to in there for so long. As we began the trek back, all of a sudden *pop* *pop* *pop* fireworks! The weirdo in the cave was launching multicoloured fireworks out. They weren't powerful - only making it halfway down the hill - or too loud. But as a side note: super illegal to launch fireworks in a provincial park.

After the show, we made our way back to the two waterfalls, contemplating whether the challenge of scaling the third waterfall was a wise decision. It was probably not. We did it anyway. Of course.

Further to the right of these falls is a stepped waterfall. If you have good spikes and you're daring, you can climb up to the head of this fall.

The falls come tumbling over the edge of the cliff and also from a crevasse in the rock. Sort of how I went tumbling over the edge of the frozen ground and slid on my big ol' butt partway down the waterfall.

The wise way to go.

Being a troll before going for a roll down the ice.

Those with waterproof pants whose hineys weren't soaking wet and frozen had a more fun time going down the slushy natural water slide.

Skating back to the mouth of the canyon, we saw the golden reflection of the sun on the river before crossing the power corridor back to the car. It was an easy afternoon hike in a winter wonderland. I can't wait to check it out this summer too!