Travel Tuesday -- Grotto Canyon in Kananaskis

I am very used to working weekends. In fact, part of why I started this business was so that I could be home with my kids during the day and work on evenings and weekends. Over the course of the last couple of years, something happened though. I started to feel like I was missing out....like my family was doing too much without me. I realize that, for most photographers, they start when they have no kids or their kids are super young.  That was the case for me, but as my kids got older...well, the regular schedule wasn't working for me. So, I made some changes.

Now that I'm working less weekends, it has taken awhile to get into the swing of being organized to get out and do something awesome as a family. This past weekend, we had big plans to go camping, but were thrown a bit of a curve ball when a project that we are working on needed some attention(we'll reveal the project soon). So, once that stuff was dealt with, we hurriedly picked a hike close to Calgary and head out to explore.

Grotto Canyon was the hike we planned on. When we got there, we discovered quite a bit of damage from last year's floods. Lots of people were trying to figure out where the trail was...no one was very successful. So, we just hiked through the flood ravaged canyon that we did find(someone told us it was called Steve Canyon or something like that). It was NOT easy(the hike was labelled as easy to do with kids). It was basically scrambling over fallen trees, smooth rocks and odd little formations. When we got to the end, someone explained to us how to find the 'real' trailhead...we went back with every intention of doing that little hike as well, but then we found this little teepee and had our packed lunch. Super chilled out, we decided that the best way to end this little adventure was to head into Canmore and get an ice cream from the school bus(everyone who has ever been to Canmore knows what I am talking about).

If you do go to Grotto Canyon, consider bringing your canoe and paddling around the little pond. Everyone was fishing there, too...so, we were wishing we had ours. If you can find the real trailhead, you could make a lovely day out of doing that and hanging by the pond.

Travel Alberta Everyone!! Let me know your favourite destination close to Calgary! We'd love to check it out!

~ Dana