TRAVEL | CANADA | CANMORE | GRASSI LAKES

Grassi Lakes — Canmore’s Not-So-Hidden Secret

It’s safe to say that it has been discovered.

As a child growing up in Canmore, Canada, I will admit that I took Grassi Lakes for granted. For years, I had this sparkling gem of a place nestled in the mountains above me and didn’t think much of it. Sure, I would visit. Almost every guest that came to stay with my family required a mandatory excursion to this lovely spot. Usually, we would pull into the parking lot at the base of the trail. Some days there would be 4–5 other vehicles there, others just one or two.

Mostly, we had the place to ourselves.

Grassi Lakes sits high up on the Bow Valley wall just below the famous Ha Ling Peak. From the valley floor, one would never know that pristine alpine lakes sit on this steep hillside. And for many years, it truly was a hidden secret. But with the surge in tourism in Canmore over the past 15–20 years, plus the increased use of social media, Grassi Lakes has been discovered.

And in a big way.

Today, 2 paved parking lots exist, one that is an overflow lot, and on most days of the week cars can be seen lining the sides of the road leading up and to the start of the trailhead.

The trail is a constant stream of people going up and down, and the small but sturdy trail that Lawrence Grassi built is sometimes not wide enough for two people to pass.

This means that the hike may take longer than you had anticipated as you stand to the side to make way for others, at times.

You may be among those that think I shouldn’t be contributing to the onslaught of potential visitors by writing this article. And trust me, I have wrestled with this immensely myself. As a local, I would love to protect our perfect spots and wish that I could keep them to myself. But as a nature lover, I also understand how important it is for all people to experience a place such as Grassi Lakes.

It is places like this that soothe the soul. They bring a perfect sort of peace and solace to our spirits when we witness the pristine beauty that they offer. How selfish would I be if I thought it best to keep this only to myself and my friends that grew up here?

It was in 2019 when I returned to Grassi Lakes after a roughly 12-year hiatus. The previous time I was up there was with my ex-husband as we memorialized his mom with a plaque on a bench after her short battle with cancer. She was born and grew up in Canmore and this was her favorite spot. I can’t imagine how pristine it must have been back when she was a kid.

In 2019 I returned with some extended family members that had never been there, plus 2 childhood friends and my cousin who also grew up in Canmore. The four of us ‘locals’ were shocked at the number of people there and couldn’t believe it when we pulled down to the overcrowded parking lot and passed the lines of cars that were parked on the sides of the road.

We were all speechless at how busy it had gotten. As we walked around the lakes, we reminisced about our past experiences there as children. We girls, specifically, remembered the time that our high school gym teacher took us there on a field trip in our senior year.

It was just her and us girls — about 25 of us. We spent the day up there picnicking on the shores and taking in the beauty and tranquility of the place. What a wonderful memory it is.

I’m pretty sure that there were no other people there at all that day.

As we passed the caves that sit at the bottom of an immense climbing wall, one of my friends confessed that her dad used to bring the family up there to camp in the summer months and they would sleep in the caves. Clearly, that would be a huge no-no these days.

We were so fortunate to grow up in Canmore when it was raw, untouched and truly undiscovered.

Today, that climbing wall hosts 150 different routes to climb and it is busy with climbers at all times.

Lawrence Grassi was the man that created our easy access to Grassi Lakes. He originally came to Canmore in 1912 to work on the Canadian National Railway. He fell in love with the Bow Valley and decided to stay and work in the coal mines. He is well known for his love of nature and the mountains and is credited with creating many trails throughout the Canadian Rockies.

He built an incredible trail from the lakes, complete with hand-set rocks that created a stunning stairway over steeper parts. Today, that original trail is still used by thousands of people.

It offers a stunning view of the valley below plus a look at a breathtaking waterfall that spills down from Spray Lakes in the valley above.

Recently, Chris and I took our Hong Kongese friend there when she visited us in Canmore for a week. It was fun seeing the beauty of it through her eyes, and I am always proud to show this gem of a place off to visitors.

Despite our insistence that it was crowded and busy, you can see from this photo that it really wasn’t that bad. Plus we kept forgetting that her version of busy, having grown up in Hong Kong, is quite different from our version.

Canmore has a looooong way to go before it is busy to the scale of Hong Kong!

While the area around the lakes is still pretty clean and pristine, we did witness people throwing rocks in the lakes, climbing on areas that they shouldn’t be climbing on, and being generally disrespectful to the environment. It’s hard to witness these actions as a person who grew up here and was taught to respect the land.

Grassi Lakes will likely see hundreds of thousands of visitors in the coming years. It is clear now that it has been discovered, and the masses won’t stop visiting. I can only hope that their visit to these spectacular lakes will help them to appreciate how beautiful these places are and how lucky we are to witness them.

And I hope that they learn to appreciate and respect what they are seeing.

As tourism continues to take its toll on Canmore, and it morphs and changes in so many ways, it is places like this that will stand the test of time. These mountains and their stunning scenery will change very little in our lifetimes. It’s nice to know that Grassi Lakes will always be there when I need to visit.

But I guess I will just have to get used to doing it with many others.

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