Perched on a plateau at the northern edge of Alberta’s Rocky Mountains, Grande Cache sits roughly 145 kilometres northwest of Hinton and about 435 kilometres west of Edmonton, accessible via Highway 40. The hamlet overlooks the Smoky River to the north, with the Sulphur River valley to the west and Victor Lake and Grande Cache Lake to the south. Grande Mountain rises to the east of the community. The area experiences a subarctic climate, and its elevated position just below the subalpine zone of the Rockies gives the surrounding landscape a dramatic, rugged character. Grande Cache is administered by the Municipal District of Greenview No. 16 and serves as a gateway to the vast Willmore Wilderness Park.
Coal mining shaped nearly everything about Grande Cache. The British Coal Board established a large mine here in 1966 to produce metallurgical coal destined for Japanese coke ovens used in steel production. The New Town of Grande Cache was formally incorporated on September 1, 1966, with new town status giving the community access to the Government of Alberta as a debt guarantor. Construction began in 1969, and by 1971 a hospital, schools, stores, and the first homes had been built. The community received full town status on September 1, 1983. Like many single-industry communities, Grande Cache experienced boom-and-bust cycles tied to coal, and efforts to diversify brought a wood chip plant and a federal prison operated by the Correctional Service of Canada. In September 2018, with a reduced population and declining tax revenues making the town financially unsustainable, residents voted overwhelmingly to dissolve town status. Of 1,100 ballots cast, 1,065 supported dissolution, 32 opposed it, and 3 were rejected. Grande Cache officially became a hamlet on January 1, 2019. Today, wilderness tourism is a growing part of the local economy.