All language subtitles for 1 1 The.Worlds.Most.Beautiful.Landscapes.S01E06.480p

The world has an incredible variety of
astonishing landscapes.

One of the most beautiful anywhere is
the Canadian Rockies.

Canada's Rocky Mountains are a landscape
of staggering proportions.

Immense ice fields.

extraordinary lakes.

And the Rockies are home to some of the
most captivating wild creatures on the

planet.

Cougars are the African lions of North
America.

They're very, very elusive and they're
very tough to find.

The Rockies contain some of the world's
most spectacular mountains.

We're here at one of my favorite
geologic locations. One of the famous

structures that geologists know is all
around the world.

The awesome power of this landscape has
held deep spiritual meaning for

thousands of years.

They would use these areas as a vision
quest.

They would write their story on the
rock.

We're going to take you on a journey
through the Canadian Rockies to admire

their wonders and discover their
secrets.

The Canadian Rockies are the northern
part of a great chain of mountains

over... 30 million years ago.

Astronauts on the International Space
Station can sometimes see the whole

Rockies poking up above cloud level for
thousands of miles along the western

side of the North American continent.

Our journey will take us through perhaps
the most spectacular 1 ,000 -mile

stretch. of the entire Rockies.

It begins as mountains rise from the
prairies, just where Canada

meets the United States.

The northern section of Waterton Lakes
National Park sits on the Canadian side

of the border.

Sacred to the Blackfoot First Nation
people, the deepest lakes descend

148 meters, almost too deep for any
chink of light to penetrate.

On the Canadian side of the border, the
rocks begin to change from

smooth and rounded towards more jagged
forms.

Below the peak, its distinctive colour
visible from space, is the Red Rock

Canyon.

Here, shady silk stones, called
argolite, have been churned up over the

millennia from the depth of the Earth.

The red colour comes from oxidised iron.

From Waterton Lake, we're heading
straight up the great imposing line of

Canadian Rockies.

165 miles further north, our destination
is a UNESCO World Heritage Site,

Banff National Park.

Here you can find one of the great
marvels of the Canadian Rockies, hidden

a vast expanse of trees.

March of Banff National Park is covered
with dense subalpine forest.

An extraordinary array of wildlife has
flourished in these forests.

Predators and their prey.

But finding the roaming animals of Banff
is no easy feat.

Wildlife photographer John E. Marriott
often sets out very early in the

the time when he has the best chance of
striking it lucky.

This is what I call wolf o 'clock.

from before dawn until when sunrise
really hit. And that's when wolves are

active.

I actually had a pretty cool encounter
with the Bamptown wolf pack just

recently. And I actually ended up having
the entire wolf pack of eight wolves

walk by me about 30 or 40 metres away
from me.

and then bed down about 60 meters away
from me.

They had no idea I was there.

The wolves in Banff live off the many
elk found roaming the park.

Despite their incredible teamwork, only
10 % of the pack's hunting attempts will

lead to success.

But in contrast to their dubious
reputation, wolves

are extremely wary of people.

As a wildlife photographer, I also find
it fascinating how they are so

persecuted in North America and really
around the world. And there's a real

hatred on them for killing livestock,
for this thought that they endanger our

children and our pets and stuff. And
really, it's all a myth. It's a

myth.

Whilst out looking for mumps elusive
wolves, John's eagle eye spots the mark

another of the park's hard -to -find
hunters.

Just going to check these tracks.

So I actually came over to check these
tracks here, which now that I'm in

they're a bit older. But in coming over
here, there are actually some cougar

tracks, or it looks like from yesterday.

This is the cougar track here, and if
you look at my fist.

It's basically about the same size.

And the cougar tracks are coming all the
way along the road here, which is

fairly unusual for a big cat.

So cougars are the mountain lions.
They're basically the African lions of

America. And they're big, basically as
long as a human is, then with another

three -foot tail, a meter -long tail.

And this looks like it's probably not a
big male. It's probably either a younger

male or a female just from the size of
the track.

And the cat probably walked on here.

Cougars have the largest range of any
mammal living in the Americas.

They roam from the Canadian Arctic to
the bottom of South America.

Unlike wolves, they are lone stealth
hunters.

Stalking a deer for up to 50 minutes
before choosing the perfect moment to

strike.

Cougars are very, very elusive and
they're very tough to find.

I was fortunate earlier in the year to
have a really glorious encounter with a

mother cougar and her kitten.

I got to sit and watch them interact and
eat a deer.

And it was really an extraordinarily
rare experience in the Canadian Rockies.

They're normally very, very tough to
find. That was only the eighth and ninth

cougars I have ever seen in my entire
life.

So this is it coming out, circling back
and forth a bit.

But you can see a distinct cougar
pattern here.

A little too old to follow, but still
interesting.

upper reaches where the trees begin to
thin out, and there is less protection

from the elements, different animals
have made their home.

We have now moved up into the high
elevation environs, and it's much

here. The snow is about three or four
feet deep. It's about minus 15 degrees

Celsius with the wind chill.

And this is where we're off looking for
lynx. No two hare, which is the white

rabbit that they feed on.

John identified signs that there might
be lynx nearby.

See what they did. See if they got a
kill.

The Canadian lynx feeds almost
exclusively on the nocturnal snowshoe

for its extremely useful and very wide
hind feet.

The snowshoe hare also changes its fur
when winter arrives, turning bright

to conceal itself in the snow.

Lynx are extremely specialized to prey
on the snowshoe hare. It's very fast,

lynx are faster and more agile.

So the lynx have these huge paws, just
as big as a cougar's, even though it's

half the size.

And that's to enable it to walk on top
of the snow and chase these snowshoe

hares down.

We had lynx tracks earlier on.

and now we've lost them and there's too
much snow falling out of the trees and

it's covering up track.

What I'm doing right now from day to
day, I just feel incredibly fortunate

this is the dream job.

It's just fantastic to be able to live
in a place like this and go out and know

on any given day you could be hiking
around and you might meet a grizzly bear

the trail.

Weighing up to 300 kilograms, and often
over two meters from head to toe,

there are around 65 grizzly bears in
Banff National Park.

On a few lucky occasions, John has
managed to track them down.

A quarter of Banff National Park sits
above the tree line, where it's too high

and cold to support forest.

It's up in these heights that the full
grandeur of the Canadian Rockies is on

display.

As we journey north, we begin to
encounter some of the Canadian Rockies'

spectacular peak, like the exquisite
Mount Rundle.

Mount Rundle is perhaps the most
frequently painted and photographed of

mountain in this range.

Its angle to the sun means it's covered
in deep shadow in the morning, but

glows warm at sunset.

The giant wedge that forms Mount Rundle
once sat deep in the Earth's crust

before it was thrust almost 3 ,000
meters into the sky.

Despite its scale, it's one of the
easiest peaks in the range to conquer.

Mount Rundle sits on the rocky's eastern
range.

To a geologist's eye, The Canadian
Rockies consist of three distinct

Each has its own very different
characteristics, despite following the

narrow course as they stretch northward.

For geologist Ava Engelman, the sheer
variety of the three separate chains is

big part of the fascination of the
Rockies.

The Rocky Mountains are composed of
three ranges that run parallel, more or

north to south.

The easternmost is the front range.

And what is typical for the front range
is that they have inclined layers, like

you see here on Mount Randall.

The main range is the layers are even
thicker.

The cliffs are even taller than here,
and they're mostly horizontal, or almost

horizontal.

The western ranges are looking entirely
different.

They don't make deep cliffs.

The mountains are still very steep and
pointy, but the layers there are much

thinner, and the rocks are much weaker
and softer, so they crumbled up entirely

in tiny little holes.

Why is that three ranges?

The reason is that we are going deeper
into that old ocean.

The three ranges were once different
layers of rock on the floor of an

ocean.

Our next mountain holds clues as to how
that ocean floor was thrust upwards

towards the sky.

Heading 15 miles east from Mount Rundle,
we come to a peak

even more spectacular, Mount Yamnuska.

Sitting at the very edge of the Rockies,
this is the very first great mountain

that comes into view as you approach
from Canada's immense plains.

Mount Yamnuska rises to a height of 2
,200 metres, with an almost vertical

cliff face forming its peak.

It can provide a test for every level of
rock climber with over a hundred

different routes to the summit.

And Mount Januska is the ideal place to
discover clues about the birth of the

Canadian Rockies many millions of years
ago.

We're here at one of my favorite
geologic locations in the Rockies. In

see on the right side, there are no
mountains, and then comes a big rock

This is Mount Yamnuska. So we are at the
eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains.

Mount Yamnuska's 300 -meter cliff face
is extremely hard limestone formed

500 million years ago.

But its peak doesn't, as you might
expect, sit on top of even older rocks.

Its geology is upside down.

The really cool part here is that if you
look underneath the rock cliff, where

the slopey part is, this is where we
have very young sediments.

Sandstones that were deposited about 80
million years ago.

And that is one of the famous
structures.

that geologists know is all around the
world. This is textbook geology here.

And that is the so -called McConnell
thrust.

The McConnell thrust is a weak layer of
shale within the sandstone rocks, which

allowed the hard old limestone to grind
up above it.

Only two meters thick, crumbled up
rocks, but it is...

A huge plane that stretches out for 480
kilometers up to the north and to the

south. And it marks the boundary of the
Rocky Mountains.

Since the Rocky Mountains were thrust
towards the sky 75 million years ago,

another great force has shaped these
mountains.

Glaciation.

Two million years ago, the Earth
dramatically cooled, causing the entire

Canadian Rockies to be covered in a
thick layer of ice, with only the

peaks visible above the white.

When the glaciers began to retreat,
these valleys were flooded with massive

amounts of meltwater.

when it eventually drained away, left
behind bizarre formations known as

hoodoos.

The hoodoos we see here, these are these
really young glacial deposits, and

they're very, very weak rocks. Some
people wouldn't even call it rocks. And

get weathered away in these really weird
shapes.

that forms these pillar -like or human
-like shapes of ghosts.

Heading 50 miles north from Mount
Yamnuska, we discover one of the most

incredible legacies of glaciers in the
Rockies.

Its astonishing natural beauty has made
it a destination for travelers for over

a century.

Lake Louise.

The pastel colours of the lake's water
were one of the very first tourist

attractions in the Rocky Mountains, when
the first chalet was built on its

shores in 1886.

The lake is only a mile long.

that plunges 70 metres deep.

This deep chasm was carved by the
Victoria glacier that now sits at its

western end and which is also
responsible for the rich turquoise

As the glacier gradually moves across
the limestone mountain, it grinds the

into a superfine powder known as glacial
flour.

This mountain debris floats, suspended
in Lake Louisa's waters, distorting the

light to spectacular effect.

Our journey through the Canadian Rockies
is taking us just outside the Banff

National Park to one of the Rockies'
most beautiful waterways,

Kicking Horse River.

The Kicking Horse begins in a mountain
lake before winding 60 kilometers

the mountains and dropping down the
breathtaking 373 -meter

The river was named after an incident
when a 19th century explorer and his

were both trying to scramble up the
banks of the river.

The horse ended up kicking the explorer
very hard in the chest.

And now the river is used for rafting.

Alongside the river is a mountain pass
with an important historical role, also

the site of one of Canada's greatest
engineering achievements.

The pass is called, unsurprisingly,
Kicking Horse Pass.

Back in the second half of the 19th
century, the western edge of the young

nation of Canada was rich with coal,
copper, lead, zinc, and above all, gold.

But the Rockies made these riches
inaccessible to the rest of the country.

The Great Canada Pacific Railway was
planned to link the country together.

But the high ridges of the Rockies
presented a formidable obstacle.

Engineers believed they'd found a direct
way through at Kicking Horse Path.

The track was built, but with a steep
gradient of 4 .5%.

The first train to attempt the route
derailed, and landed in the river,

three people.

A solution was needed and work began on
an extraordinary project, carving

tunnels in a spiral into the mountains.

Two spiral tunnels were bored out of
solid rock, increasing the journey down

mountainside by over a mile.

These subterranean constructions reduce
the incline of the rails from a

dangerous 4 .5 % to a just about
acceptable 2 .2%.

It has resulted in the extraordinary
sight of the same train seemingly moving

in multiple directions just 15 meters
apart.

Spiral tunnels help make the route
connecting the Pacific to the Atlantic.

A success.

Helping to bond together the Canadian
nation we know today.

But mountains have been much more than
just a difficult place to cross.

Long before European settlers even
arrived in Canada, the mountains had a

special meaning to the people who had
long lived in this landscape.

Indigenous peoples have lived in this
region for 10 ,000 years.

When European settlers came,

First Nation peoples lost their
territory.

through their descendants we can still
understand something of what this great

landscape once meant.

Tim Patterson's ancestors belonged to a
First Nation people whose name, the

Inconclutnuk, means people of the
canyon.

I'm originally from British Columbia.
I'm Inconclutnuk.

And I've been out here for about 25
years now. I just can't seem to get over

mountains.

This is traditional territory to a
number of indigenous groups here in

Alberta and eastern British Columbia.

Start with the Tenoho and then moved in
the Nitsitapi or the Blackfoot.

And then after that, a number of
different groups came through, the Dene

Sotena, and then the Stony Nakota.

Indigenous people lived mainly down in
the prairies where hunting was good, but

came to the mountains for many food
sources.

It's well known certain peoples are, you
know, lived off the buffalo or lived

off salmon. And that's true.

But the mountains, apart from being awe
-inspiring just in terms of their power,

they were extremely diverse as they are
today in biodiversity.

And so we would move up into the
mountains and my people, where I'm from,

go. and harvest roots like the yellow
avalanche lily and still eat

it the way we used to eat it.

It's a plant that is an annual alpine
flowering plant that

comes out just as the snow moves off the
land.

Some things like the spruce tree here,
some people still use spruce needles to

make tea.

And most of our diet came from these
things.

If we just lived on buffalo or just
lived on fish, we would be pretty

The mountains took on a great spiritual
significance.

These slopes became a place of
pilgrimage for First Nation people.

Grado Canyon, where we are right now.

as well as other canyons in the eastern
slopes.

They would use these areas for fasting,
what a lot of people would identify

as a vision quest.

But they would also, after that fast,
they would write

their story on the rock.

But they would also use pictographs and
rock writings as the protection.

So they would write on the entryway to
those places to protect them.

The steep walls of Grotto Canyon are
covered in rock art thought to date back

least 1 ,300 years, depicting key
stories about the landscape and its

mythical creator, Napi, that were passed
down the generations.

These would be like transformers. They
would be in the mystical time prior to,

you know, what we see today and what we
understand.

And they were part of the people that
developed this world, right? This would

have been a larger set of writings and a
panel.

There's some over here.

This looks like Napi holding a hoop.

And they would have a hoop and arrow
game that they'd play.

And that's linked to the stories, eh?
Way back when Napi fought the

mountain spirit.

It's a Blackfoot tradition that the
mountains don't belong to anybody. And

was because of that story.

And so Napi, who's a mythical feature in
the history and creation of the

Blackfoot people, he moved throughout
the country teaching the people how to

hunt and how to harvest and where to go
and where not to go, who should and who

should not be in the mountains.

It can be a fairly formidable place.

Tracking the long line of the Rockies
further to the north, the landscape

changes.

As we approach a place that connects us
11 ,000 years back to the last Ice Age,

when this whole region was covered in
ice, the Columbia Icefield.

The Columbia Icefield stands out from
space.

as a vista of white punctuated with the
shapes of glacial valleys.

Formed 200 ,000 years ago, the Columbia
Icefield is a natural wonder.

Sitting 3 ,000 meters above sea level,
it covers over 70 square miles.

Though it has receded in recent times,
It's still in many places well over a

hundred meters deep.

It not only feeds six major glaciers,

it

feeds rivers that flow into all three of
the oceans that surround Canada.

The meltwater of the Columbia Ice Sheet
hasn't just produced some of Canada's

greatest rivers.

It's also carved the country's longest
cave system, which extends for an

incredible 24 kilometers.

To get inside, you must first squeeze
yourself through a very tight 30 -meter

passage.

Explorers captured a rare glimpse of
Castleguard Cave when they managed to

its hidden depths on an expedition in
2013.

One of the few times this subterranean
world has ever been recorded

on film.

The cave system was sculpted over
millennia by the torrential forces of

meltwater during warmer periods between
ice ages.

The explorers.

spent four days underground in a world
without light, exploring many miles

of passages.

They found extraordinary mineral
deposits that look like they're from an

planet.

Their vivid white color comes from
calcite, dissolved from the surrounding

limestone rock.

The explorers also found rare cube
-shaped cave pearls formed from minerals

slowly crystallizing around a single
grain of sand.

They also discovered a unique blind
shrimp -like creature found nowhere

on the planet.

It's extraordinary proof how life can
find a way, even in the most extreme

circumstances, in passages that stretch
away many miles from sunlight.

Our journey up the Canadian Rockies will
now take us two -thirds of the way

towards their northern tip, to a
mountain pass with an extraordinary

Athabasca Pass.

Before the railways, Athabasca Pass was
a vital route across this section of the

Rockies for European settlers and
traders.

These spectacular mountains, with some
of the rocky's very highest peaks, were

dauntingly hard for traders to cross.

The effort to master these mountains was
driven by the value of Canada's most

iconic creature, the beaver.

The North American beaver was once found
across the entire continent, from

Canada's Arctic tundra to the deserts of
Mexico.

These highly industrious animals have
had a profound impact on the Rockies'

landscape, constructing extensive dams
from felled trees,

the longest ever, measuring 850 meters
in length.

They helped slow down river courses, and
create vast wetlands.

The beavers go to incredible lengths to
build these deep ponds, hoping to keep

themselves safe from potential
predators.

With the knock -on effect of helping
create a vital habitat for other

to thrive, from fish to insects and
wildflowers.

But the arrival of Europeans on Canada's
east coast in the 16th century spelt

doom for many of North America's 60
million beavers.

The fashion for beaver felt hats was
driving a huge demand for their fur.

At the height of the trade during the
17th and 18th centuries, about 200 ,000

furs was sent to Europe every single
year.

The forefathers of Joe Urie were Métis
people, a group with a unique heritage

who had a pivotal role within this
burgeoning trade.

That is a beaver lodge, the home of the
beaver. That's what it was all about.

And the reason for coming for our beaver
was the beaver over in Europe had been

depleted. They were almost extinct.

And there was a cache of them over here,
the likes of which was never seen in

Europe.

The fur trade was extremely lucrative.

But before the pelts could be sent at a
huge profit to Europe, traders had to

get them across the Rockies.

Things worked their way across the
country in kind of stages in this sort

relay manner, being transferred by
different men of the trade, a lot of

Métis.

And ultimately, it's the culmination of
a long line of Métis people who lived

and worked along this river.

The origin of the Métis people is that
of unions between two very, very

distinctly different cultures. You had
European men who'd signed on with the

trade, generally of French, English, or
Scottish descent, coming over here, and

it became sort of customary for them,
some of them, to take on what were

country brides, where they married into
indigenous families. And sometimes this

was just done to sort of secure trade in
a particular area with a particular

people. But ultimately, their children,
and their children's children developed

this new culture, this mixed culture,
and Métis means mixed.

The Métis' First Nation heritage gave
them excellent knowledge of the

and they possessed the toughness needed
to conquer the Rockies.

And at the crucial Athabasca Pass, the
Métis people became indispensable to

European traders.

We've made the Athabasca Pass.

That's it back there.

It served as the through route over and
into the Columbia District for the

better part of five decades. Once you
get up and over the other side of the

divide, you'll come down, and it was a 2
,000 -kilometre paddle to the Pacific.

As Métis people, we're a very hardy and
sturdy group of people. They play a

pivotal role in getting things up and
over the path in both directions.

What is it like to cross that path?

Well, it's about 50 kilometres to the
height of it and a gain of almost 1 ,000

metres. What you need to bring up and
over the path and into the Athabasca is

those fur bales. The average bale
weighed about 90 pounds.

The average...

A Métis man working the trade would
carry two of them. That's 180 pounds.

What's significant was the way that they
did carry them.

This is a true sash in the true length
of it, and this would create a tump line

which wrapped around the forehead and
around the bottom of those bales so that

you could keep your hands free. Now
consider that.

You're going up 50K, up 1 ,000 meters,
and you've got 180 pounds

strapped to your head.

Once the fur trade through the Rockies
began to dwindle due to changing

fashions, seven Métis families decided
to remain living near the Athabasca

close to the modern town of Jasper.

And this is the final resting place of
Suzanne Caraconti Moberly.

He met a gentleman by the name of Henry
John Moberly, who was a white fellow

from Ontario.

Now, if we're going to be here in this
place and speak to them and their story,

I think it's appropriate that we're just
going to put a pinch of tobacco down,

just as sort of an offering.

Suzanne and her family were some of the
first people ever to settle, summer and

winter. in this harsh Rocky Mountain
environment.

Well, this is the homestead of one of
the Macy families that lived in the

valley. This one in particular belonged
to Yvonne and Madeline Moberly, Yvonne

being the son of Suzanne.

And, of course, there are ten children.

They survived sort of subsistently.

They were hunters.

They were trappers. But they also
cultivated the area, so they did farm.

did grow hay and whatnot to feed their
livestock.

Many Métis, along with other indigenous
groups, were removed from the land they

called home.

and face persecution in Canada for many
years.

A scarring history which is only now
being acknowledged.

As we move towards the very northern tip
of the Canadian Rockies, our final

destination is the pinnacle of this
continent's splitting range.

Mount Robson.

This hulking massif rises 4 ,000 meters
into the sky.

Its towering peak catches any passing
weather system, covering the mountain in

snow, and creating the spectacular
glacier sliding

down its north face.

First Nation people call it the Mountain
of the Spiral Road,

as the visible rock layers seemingly
invite a winding

path to the top.

But this giant is arguably the hardest
peak in the entire Rockies to climb.

The steep sedimentary cliff faces and
the upper sections completely encased in

ice and snow make it a grueling ascent.

Most climbers have to turn back before
they reach the summit.

Those that make it are rewarded with
extraordinary views of a world of

grandeur.

The Canadian Rockies have now taken us
north for a thousand miles.

Through breathtaking peaks, lakes,
rivers, and ice.

Without doubt, one of the world's most
beautiful landscapes.