Does Grotto Creek Trail Sound Easy to You?

For Labour Day we decided to take on the outdoors. We would do a simple hike on our way to Canmore, where we could enjoy a meal at our new favourite mountain eatery: The Flatbread Company. It seemed like an idyllic way to spend the day.



I searched online and found a trail that was described as short and easy. It seemed just right for a band of kids aged 2-5, so off we went to hike the Grotto Creek Trail, not too far from Exshaw (you know, near that huge ugly gravel plant on the shore of Lac des Arcs that is slowly eating that mountain).



The trail stared out pretty easy: a pleasant path through the woods.





Things opened up to a major washout area where the grotto dumps water when it rains hard. It was hard to tell if this was the work of nature or a team of backhoes.



Where Alli went, the boys were sure to follow.



Does this look like the sort of person that would damage Indian pictographs? I doubt it.



The trail was tougher than we expected -- not particularly steep or anything -- just really uneven. The rocky creekbed at the bottom of the grotto made for uncertain footing for toddlers. We had to help them along half of the time.

...and the other half of the time we had to pull them away from all the rocks and sticks they wanted to carry along.



Finally, we made it to the waterfall at the end of the trail. It was hard to relax much, though, because most of the surfaces were quite steep.



Trying to set up for a family picture got pretty tricky. This was the closest they got until we hiked back down to the "easy" part of the path.



Grotto Creek Trail: harder than it sounds, but you can find every-so-many fabulous rocks on the ground. Just don't touch the Indian pictographs.