Adventures in Canmore, Alberta, Canada

When planning our big trip over the second half of 2019 I realized, after researching the best dates for low airfare leaving Europe and calculating exactly how many days we could stay in the US before losing our foreign earned income exclusion, that a few weeks in Canada would fit well into our plans.  I had the Banff and Jasper National Parks area on my list, so was really excited when it all worked out.

Of course, our trip coincided with the peak season in these national parks (we hit both Canada day to maximize the Canadian tourists and the 4th of July to maximize American tourists!), so we booked (for high prices) far in advance.  Our first stop, which was scheduled to be fairly relaxing, allowing us to get over our jet lag and for me to get a bit of work done, was outside the national parks in the nearby town of Canmore.  Canmore is an adorable town surrounded by mountains, full of good restaurants and mountain lodge-type accommodations.

While in Canmore, we stayed in the Grande Rockies Resort, where we had a 2-bedroom suite with kitchen.  Since we had a few rainy days, we took full advantage of the indoor pool with hot tub and water slide.  We also had an amazing view of the Three Sisters peaks from our balcony.

From our resort, we were close enough to walk to the Town Centre (Canada spelling 😉 ) for dinner, and the nearby climbing wall. 

Here are a few of the things we did while based in Canmore.

Indoor Climbing Wall

The city of Canmore has a pretty amazing indoor recreation center, called Elevation Place, where they had a climbing wall and fancy indoor pool with water slide.  We didn’t go to the pool, since we had one in our hotel, but the boys did spend an afternoon climbing.

A in the blue shirt, with N (in green) chasing him up the wall

Grassi Lakes Trail Hike

Courtesy of jet lag, we didn’t have any problem hitting the Grassi Lakes Trail early one morning.  This is a fairly easy trail, just 4km round trip.  Towards the beginning of the hike, there was an option for an easy route and a hard route. We opted to go to the lakes on the easy route and return the hard way.  The “easy” route was just a wide gravel path with a steady incline.  The scenery was mainly trees, so we didn’t love that route.  We finally arrived at the tiny little lake, which was that wonderful turquoise color found in so many lakes in the area.  After a quick tour around the lake (more like a pond), we headed for the “hard” way.  After a steady incline to the lakes, we were mostly going down hill.  This way was trickier, as we maneuvered over rocks and down stairs, but it was also more interesting and with better views.

This was definitely the best way to go, though we did have the easy job of going downhill instead of up.

Grotto Creek Canyon Trail

Since the forecast for the rest of our days in Canmore (and actually the rest of our days in Canada!) were for rain, we convinced the boys to do one more hike, another one of just over 4km.  We drove about 20 minutes and arrived at the parking lot for this trail.  The first part of the trail was following along the side of the highway and passing by a magnesite processing facility.  Finally, we arrived at a scenic overlook.Beyond the overlook, we started the fun part of this hike as we walked into what appeared to be a (mostly) dry creek bed, though it was apparently formed by a retreating glacier.

Finally, we got to the end of the creek bed, and there was a rock wall and a small waterfall.Then, we turned around and enjoyed the walk back.

The end of the hike contained a natural slide, which the boys had to slide down a few times each.

This was a fun hike and kept the boys entertained.

Unfortunately, the weather forecast was correct and we spent the rest of our time in Canmore stuck in our hotel, enjoying watching Wimbledon, the Women’s World Cup semi-final games and swimming in the pool.

Enjoying the indoor swimming pool – great rainy day activity

Mastering the Rubik’s Cube – another good activity when you are stuck indoors.

After our time in Canmore, we headed into the Canadian National Parks.  Keep an eye out for our next blog posts to find out if it really did rain for our entire time in in Canada.