Grotto Canyon

La randonnée se présente en deux temps. La première partie plutôt moche et bruyante car on contourne une usine. Cependant, ce petit désagrément est vite oublié un fois entré dans le canyon. Il faut littéralement marcher dans le lit de la rivière pour arrivé à une chute. C'est à coupé le souffle. Cette portion de la randonnée me fais pensé à la randonnée de Riverwalk de Zion park. Gratuit!

Well maintained trail. Gorgeous rock formations and colours. Rock climbing capability. Some steep inclines to view the frozen falls / cave. Decent variation in photo opportunities available.

Good sized parking area for the trail head. Thankful there are modern outhouses, but they were pretty disgusting - one was out of tp, one had tp and other garbage all over the floor, and only one of the hand sanitizer dispensers was working.

Amazing experience. Bought our ice cleats and our 7 month old baby and had a wonderful time.
Would highly recommend.
The only downfall is walking along the power lines and plant at the beginning.

Very pretty trail after walking past the first 15 minutes from the parking lot and past the sight of the factory.

If you are traveling in the winter, do bring some ice cleats to make it a more enjoyable experience.

The first and only bench is a very good photo spot.

The Grotto Canyon Ice walk is a must do. You can go with a guide or do it on your own. Crampons are highly recommended.

Beautiful trail! If icy season, need wear shoe cleats or ice claws!
Waterproof shoes are must when the frozen creek watery

The trail was amazing! Wear ice cleats during the winter, the trail is slippery. Breathtaking views.

Interesting family group trail that's easy to access right off hwy 1A. Less than 20 mins east of Canmore. Moderate incline. Never go on a weekend or holiday as it gets crazy packed.

The parking lot is small. Has a area map, pokemon gym, pokemon stop, public washrooms and a shorter trail that goes along the pond if you wanted to do a quick picnic. For the canyon trail, go up the hill by the park sign and follow the trail signage and then follow the creek bed. This is a heavily trafficked path, don't expect much solitude until you're past the cave

The signage on the hwy has increased to tell people not to park on the road way.online, Alberta Parks will suggest you come back on a quieter day if you can't find a spot in the parking lot.

Everyone going should be willing and able to navigate over uneven terrain and lots of loose rocks. (The intial Parks maintained trail is covered with small/med size rocks for the 1st part and all natural rocks of all sizes throughout the rest of the trail as you follow the creek bed). There are a couple spots that you need to climb over boulders, or up a few slippery slopes. There are ways to avoid these, if the climbing is too difficult for any group members. I.e. The climb over the big rocks at the beginning of the canyon area can be avoided if you take the high water trail instead of the creek bed/lower canyon path. Some parts are slippery of wet tho and on the edge of the east ridge of the canyon.

The water fall is nice but alittle sparse, like little mountain creek, in mid summer. The rock pile bend is amusing. Fun spot to take more pictures and add to your own rock tower. Alittle further is the cave and a wider canyon path. The people traffic thins out from the waterfall.

Note: in the winter/spring, ice cleats or at a minimum waterproof shoes are strongly suggested. Gloves and layered clothing as well. There are spots where the wind blows thru and it's wonderful in Summer but bitter cold in winter.

Great easy hike for the whole family. After the cave most people go back so it’s nice to keep going and it’s open and barely anyone around.

We think this trail is best in the winter, when you can walk on the bottom of the canyon with some spikes. The frozen waterfalls are pretty cool too. It is nice in the summer also.

Grotto Canyon is an amazing easy hike situated close to Canmore. It is super easy to get to off of Highway A1 and starts off at a beautiful pond. The hike is moderate in its inclines and leads you first along some paths past the mineral plant before you ascend into the canyon. The Hopi pictographs are super neat and the waterfall is quite nice as well. I recommend continuing past the maintained trail on the unmaintained portion so you can see the Inukshuk rock garden. All in all a great hike that offers some great views and is suitable for people of all ages!

Really nice moderate hike close to Calgary. We have done a lot of hikes and this was good scenery and we plan to go back in the summer to see the contrast. Wasn't too busy on a Sunday morning but I imagine it will be very busy once it is nicer. Plan to get to the lot early to beat the rush!

Parking is mayhem and we almost left because it was so crazy. The first 1/3 of the hike is really yucky. Walking along the power lines and past a "mineral processing facility" that sounded like a highway. After you get to the river bed the hike is amazing though! Definitely need ice cleats and you would need poles to hike up the waterfall at the end! There are pit toilets and sanitizer. We had our daughter and it was an easy hike.

It was really simple. Safe fir young kids and pet friendly. Watch the ice though and can get crowded with people fast. Very little parking as well.

Loved this trail. You walk through the canyon till a waterfall. Keep going to an inukshuk garden and then a cave. Wear hikers with ankle support though. Rocky terrain all the way.

GREAT short ice hike. Ice cleats and poles highly recommended. Lesson learned. Not to do this hike as the trail is busy.

Pretty busy trail, but the frozen falls were absolutely beautiful! There is a cave further down the trail as well but honestly I could've turned around at the falls

Relatively easy trail, if you don’t try to climb the ice without proper gear. If you’re doing this trail in winter, micro spikes are a must. The start of the trail is deceivingly boring; stick it out for the waterfalls!

Great short little hike. The waterfalls at the end are beautiful. Get started early as it will get busy and the parking lot will fill as the day goes on. I was skeptical at first about the trek as the first half of the hike was under a large powerline and near a mineral refinery but when you turn into the canyon you forget all that and it's a just you and nature. It can be wet, icy, windy, rocky, etc so be prepared for it all. Pet friendly hike as well.

It's an easier and more family friendly hike. You can bring kids and they should be able to hike by themselves. Beautiful views of the creek. It will take roughly about 1 to 1.5 hours depending on how fast you walk. Enjoy

This is a gorgeous hike! It’s not too challenging or steep so it’s great for beginners. Even more experienced hikers would enjoy this. The rocks and gorge are breathtaking. I’d like to do this hike early in the season when the run off is higher, that would be an amazing hike. It’s very rocky, almost all rocks the whole way so, supportive shoes are a must. The beginning of the hike is a bit boring as you walk past the plant but it quickly opens up into a beautiful canyon. No poles required for this. All in all, a good day. As a bonus, there is a pond at the trail head and picnic tables so, you can treat yourself to a nice lunch or picnic after the hike. I will do this one again.

Beautiful! For your safety only wear proper footwear and use microspikes or better yet have crampons, you are walking uphill on ice

Wonderful little easy winter walk. Bring spikes/crimp on as you'll likely be walking on top of ice.

Really beautiful hike, definitely recommend spikes in the winter because it's very icy and slippery. A bit slushy in places, so waterproof shoes or extra socks are a good idea.

Such a unique experience to hike on the surface of a frozen river. Amazing to see the frozen waterfall at the end. Great for beginner hikers. Ice cleats are a must (e.g. Buy from Canadian tire).

Great family hike. Perfect for dogs. This is one we always take company on and everyone completely enjoys. The canyon walls are impressive and it is neat to walk on the creek bed and makes it easy for most. Little water fall that makes for nice pics with people.

One of the awesome trial near by Calgary.
Great hiking area, short trip of approx 2.5 to 3 hours, need of good shoes, very nice views at entire trail.

Amazing hiking trail. I will rate Grotto canyon trail as easy to moderate. This hike can be completed with children too.

Great hike. Uphill battle and high winds will have your eyebrows frosted by the time you're finished.

If you go in the spring you’ll need gators or waterproof shoes to get up the creek without getting wet.

Would give this place a 5 star but the rock along the entire hike got to my feet even with really good hiking shoes on but nevertheless such a great hike.

Although we didnt see and pictographs, we had a fun little hike. The hike wasnt too strenuous. Even though we went on a pretty windy day, it was mostly sheltered. The waterfall at the end of the maintained hike was beautiful. We decided to go on for about 15 more minutes and saw some pretty hoodoos. It was a nice quick hike.

Great place to learn to fly fish. The pond is stocked with rainbow trout. There's ample opportunity to see plenty of wildlife too. You can find harmless garter snakes by the waters edge, osprey diving for fish, and the occasional bear.

The fishing really sucks. Everybody we've talked to didn't get a single bite all day. Pretty views. But ALL the views in kananaskis are great.

This is a great place to visit in one day, there is a pond where you can fish, they have some picnic tables, benches, washroom and a trail that leads to the Grotto Canyon. It's a family friendly hike, very short and easy to do, I went on Summer time but I would love to go back on winter, those walls and the waterfall at the end of the canyon must be gorgeous with ice and snow

This is one of my favourite hikes! The main trail is about 2 km in and takes you through some beautiful steep canyon walls until you reach a waterfall. Then you can keep going about 2 more km from there and it takes you into a wider rocky area with some hoodoos. It will actually keep on going further if you want! You can choose how long you'd like to go along the dry river bed. Bring some good hiking boots especially if you are going into the rockier area!

Super fun and easy hike up this canyon. Some spots where we had to cross the small river (early July) but nothing crazy. It was a bit slippery on the rocks at times so be careful.

Short walk (3.8km) round trip. Easy to follow. Pretty neat spot. Be sure to venture just a little way up the unmaintained trail to see the village of inukshuk.