Grotto Canyon

Earlier this week, I did my last winter photo shoot for this season. I went to an interesting location, close to home that I had not visited before, Grotto Canyon. It’s a slot canyon, near the small town of Exshaw about 20 minutes east of Canmore. I was accompanied by Stewart Hamilton and two fellow members of the Canmore Camera Club, Kelly Suchan and Cliff Hansen.

The trek up the canyon is a popular hike, leading through the narrow, winding gorge. The trail is actually a creek bed, which at this time of the year is frozen, making the walk relatively easy wearing ice crampons for a secure grip. We went in about 2 km to some frozen waterfalls, where we stopped to get some photographs.

My first picture features one of the principal waterfalls, or more accurately an icefall at this time of year. Climbing the icefalls is a popular recreation in the area and there were several climbers present to model for us. This fellow appeared to be new to the sport, being coached by another climber just out of view.

Just to the right was a nice formation of ice, a good photographic subject. I endeavoured to capture the interesting patterns created as the water froze.

I wandered up a lateral channel of the canyon to watch these climbers scaling another icefall. This shot clearly shows the river of ice descending the relatively steep slope down to the main canyon.

Today’s final two shots were taken as we walked out of the canyon at the conclusion of our visit. This first photo captures the sidewall of the canyon, displaying its colourful walls. A nice contrast to the more prevalent monotones of winter.

Here’s another view of the canyon wall at a bend in the creek along our walk down. The frozen creek takes on the characteristic aqua/blue colour of the mountain streams in the Rockies.

It was a very pleasant day, unseasonably warm, a couple of degrees above freezing. We were not alone, with many climbers, hikers and their children enjoying the canyon under very nice conditions. Not bad for photographers either.  No frozen fingers!