These Walls Could Speak

Heading up and into Grotto Canyon near Canmore, Alberta on a crisp winter afternoon. The walls seem to speak as the canyon narrows and snow and ice pile up under your feet, crunching sounds that echo off the stone. In fact they do speak. Ancient pictographs are found on some of these stone walls, showing visits from ancestors of the Native American Nation of the Hopi – a people who now reside in Arizona – up to 1300 years ago. The pictographs are fading and easy to miss if you aren’t looking closely (top right, below). A couple frozen waterfalls provide a playground for ice climbers – and on a nice day there can be more than a few of ’em! The image above is taken after the falls, before the land opens up again to the sky where the hoodoos, caves and bears come together. Here is some more info on this family-friendly hike and history of the canyon.

Grotto Canyon, Canmore, Alberta, 2014.