It was a while since we had visited the mountains, which we seem to have fallen in love with since we first saw them back in Aug’09. We had seen the Rockies a few times in summer and in fall. We loved it each time. Winter was just about setting in and we wanted to check how the Rockies looked in snow. More importantly we had just invested in our snow boots and wanted to try them out to ensure we made a sensible spend. So we chose to go on a hike to Grassi Lakes - just off Canmore.
So we set on the morning of 22/Nov/09, a Sunday. We decided to leave early and have breakfast in Canmore town – we anyways had to go to the visitor’s information centre to confirm that the trail is still open after a heavy snowfall during the week. We didn’t get enough time the previous day to research on a restaurant, so we ended up walking down the main streets of Canmore in the cold before settling on a Coffee Shop specializing in Bagels. We gulped down the hot coffee and bagel sandwiches quickly. The information centre was closed, so we went to another centre in the outskirts. We got a confirmation on the trail and the helpful lady behind the desk gave us a couple of maps as well.
As we approached the base, we saw how well winter had set in the mountains. Snow was allover and the lake at the base was already frozen. There are 2 trails to Grassi Lakes which is found around 200 meters from the car park. We had read and were also told at the information centre that the more difficult route had all the views - of Canmore and the Bow Valley. The more difficult route is not really very difficult but one has to watch their footing. Though there is a series of stairs to make the climb easier, the snow and ice made the path extremely slippery. Moreover it had completely covered the path in many places and we were clueless on where to go next. We were lost for about an hour with no signals on the phone as well. At one point we contemplated on retracing our steps. But we got stuck in a particularly difficult spot.
The spot was difficult because a brook running down the mountain had frozen and the whole place was just ice. We fell several times between the 2 of us. The situation was more hilarious than we thought – am sure we looked like bowling pins getting knocked down regularly. We managed to catch a glimpse of a lovely and quite big waterfall over the next mountain amidst our falling act. Luckily an hour into this falling and searching madness, a group of hikers came along. One of them had been to the place before so knew the “hidden” path. We followed them all the way to the top.
There are 2 lakes (springs really) at the top and a beautiful view of Ha Ling Peak. The 2 lakes atop the mountain have been named after the guy who discovered it. The lakes themselves are a sparkling sight. The water is so clear that a good reflection of the mountains, tree and snow falls very well on it. A steep but short climb at the end of the upper lakes leads to a canyon where a genuine petro-glyph can be found on a large boulder. We heard that the area was popular sport climbing as well. We didn’t climb that part as it was getting late – we had lost a lot of time earlier on trying to find the path to the lakes. But it gives enough inspiration for a re-visit at least. We got back on the easy route after the interesting incident we had on the other route. This route was quite boring comparatively. It looked like a truck route and just cut through the trees blindly.
We were thankful to come back home and that too in one piece. But despite the episode we loved the hike – it was enchanting and charming nonetheless.
More information on how to access the trail and the trail itself can be found at:
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