Rats Nest Cave is pretty famous. In 1987 it was designated a Provincial Historic Resource because of its incredible archaeological significance. The cave is currently ranked the 13th longest (4,005 metres) and 18th deepest (245 metres) in Canada. It is on lower south slopes of Grotto Mtn, some 6km east of Canmore. This is not one of these docile caves you can casually walk in and look around; it is tight, narrow and basically technical terrain. You are not allowed to go by yourself and cave is gated; you need to hike professional licensed guide, such as Canmore Cave Tours.



I knew about it for a long time, but as closed spaces are not my thing really I largely ignored it. But I figured I could at least walk up there and look around a bit. It is fairly short hike; you start off 1A as for Carter Route up Grotto Mtn, but after reaching powerline ~15min in you go right across drainage, then left up good trail. This trail initially climbs on climber right through the forest for ~10 min, then descends to gully / watercourse and follows this to the cave. There were some ropes here, probably because it can get quite slippery if not dry. These 2 pics show this part:






Then you are at cave entrance; 30-40 min from the parking max. Cave is on right side, solid iron fence; and even to get to entrance requires use of rope. On the other side was surprisingly large tarp and picnic area; I guess after they guide clients through the cave they serve them lunch there for complete package before heading down:









Then I decided to go exploring a bit, and this was the best part. Going further up the canyon soon gets quite challenging. Its a scramble basically & I had to bypass on climber left and bushwhack before dropping back down. Soon I came to 4-5m high cliff/waterfall -- Daffern mentions this in her guidebook (orange). It was slimy and slippery and after brief inspection I figured it was not really worth:



Not really ready to turn back just yet, I scrambled on climber right wanting at least a peek whats above the cliff -- good thing I didn't go up after all because it gets really rough after that; I'd probably have to turn back right away. But I noticed nice looking grotto a bit higher and scrambled up; this was the highlight. Exceptionally beautiful and pristine, tucked under steep rock wall:



There was also what seemed like a cave there too, but getting up to access ledge required ~4m class 5 climb up nearly vertical rock & I was not comfortable doing it without the rope



After sitting for awhile I returned back, and oh surprise it could not have been more than 30min, but that almost dry cliff now had quite a bit of waterfall coming down!!



Upon returning back to Rats Nest Cave entrance, instead of hiking back the same way I scrambled up on west side knowing there is Carter Butress trail up there & then returned that way for loop of a sort. Rain came down hard as I descended & I was glad I was not in that canyon as it must have been flowing real good.


This is nice exploration short hike worth doing even if you are not planning on cave itself. Alternate report on personal web site here