Finding the Top of the World

My daughter expressed an interest in hiking a while ago, and while I thought about asking her to join me, the vision of snow covered mountains from the city left me thinking that perhaps the hiking season was over for me. Slogging in the snow is hard enough without motivating a novice to follow (as if I am so experienced...)

But Grotto Canyon was so intriguing and is so accessible, that I thought it would be a great place to begin. So after much waiting around while she dragged herself out of bed and through the shower (we talking about a teenager on a holiday weekend, after all) we arrived at the trailhead beside Groto Mountain Pond about 11:00.

While it was a beautiful clear and sunny day, it can still be quite chilly in mid-October. The temperature at the start was about 3C, and we had several layers. This is at the bottom of the creek bed at the start of the canyon, mugging for the camera with Mt. McGillivray in the background, I think. Pidgeon Mountain would be the peak just off camera to the right.



The chill persisted into the canyon, of course, with it being mostly still in shadow. A stiff breeze followed us up the canyon for several metres, but eventually died out as we moved further on.

I love how the canyon narrows, and I felt last time I was here that two people holding hands could touch both sides in some places. We tested that at one point, but came up short, only by a half metre or so.



As the day wore on, the sun began to reach into the canyon, giving it a wonderful glow. There's something magical about the way the light comes into the canyon, either directly or reflected off the light grey limestone walls.



There seemed to be more water flowing through the lower part of the canyon this time, and looking back into the sun, there was the double glare of the sun and it's reflection from pools. I could shade for one but not the other in using the camera.



At the place where the T intersection is, we went right and climbed up to the waterfall. There was a lot of seepage from cracks in the rock, which made the sloping rock face slippery in places, and we couldn't get all they way up to where I took the waterfall pictures on my last visit. But we sat just a few metres down from there for a snack.

My camera batteries weren't charged as much as they needed to be for pictures in the shadows. I would take a shot, and if the flash went off, the camera would shut down because of lack of power. So I didn't get too many pictures from this point on.

After the snack, we climbed back down to the junction, and continued west along the creek bed. Again the wind was brisk at our backs, being funneled up the canyon, but eventually it died, and we were lsft with that incredible stillness I wrote about the last time. Kate took the time to pick through the rubble for interesting looking stones, while I just stopped to enjoy the stillness.



We continued on as far as the hoodoos, and stopped to check them out. The cave was an irresistible lure, and we tried climbing up to it.



It was pretty hard climbing, since it was a steep gravel slope. Not too much stability, and it broke loose quite easily, making it not too fun for the second person in line (that was me). Where we climbed was to the left of the cave, and then there was a series of ledges that traversed to the cave.

This felt quite treacherous. The ledges were mostly nothing more that foot-sized depressions in the gravel, and the slope below was very steep. It was awesome to look into the cave itself. It seemed to be about ten metres deep, and maybe three metres high. Dark and mysterious. But I didn't stay long, as it seemed every surface I touched crumbled, so I wasn't confident that the whole mess wouldn't collapse on top of me.

Once down, we decided to call it a day and head for Canmore for some lunch. By this time it was warming up nicely. My daughter stopped to shed a jacket and adjust her load of stones. I took this looking back up the canyon.



After a fabulous lunch in Canmore, we headed home. The novice hiker crashed completely on the ride home. Next step is to get her equiped with hiking boots and clothing, and keep dragging her out to this wonderful wilderness.