To the Wild Country

From the cool heights of the Cypress Hills to the eerie badland formations of the Red Deer River, Alberta is a land of open space, big skies, and an abundance of wildlife. With prehistoric fossilized bones continually emerging from the ancient soil, and a great ranching tradition that still carries on, John and Janet Foster explore what is known to be the Great Canadian Southwest.

In Canada's wild Yukon Territory, 8,500 square miles of the most spectacular scenery on earth has been set aside as a National Park called Kluane. From its gentle lowland valleys to the icy peak of Mt. Logan, Kluane is a land of stark and beautiful contrasts. This great park, bordered along one side by the fabled Alaska Highway, is explored by wilderness photographers John and Janet Foster.

North America's Great Lakes are the largest bodies of fresh water on earth. This episode reveals a land unknown to many of the people who live along the shores of the Great Lakes. John and Janet Foster explore some of the hidden corners of these vast inland seas, photographing rare creatures and searching for caribou along Superior's northern rim.

In Ontario's Algonquin Park wilderness, the Fosters meet and befriend an interesting couple from Michigan, guiding them as they paddle and photograph wildlife around the park. In the course of their stay in Algonquin, the two couples meet a few local experts who teach them about canoe handling, how a loon responds to hearing its own call played back, and an expert on building birch bark canoes.

Just north of Montreal is a landscape carved and shattered by three great ice ages. More than 8,000 square miles of Baffin Island's Cumberland peninsula has been set aside here as the world's first truly arctic national park. John and Janet Foster explore its harsh beauty, taking their cameras to places very few have seen, and also spending some time in the nearby Inuit community of Pangnirtung.

Explore the Great Gulf of the St. Lawrence River, as John and Janet Foster photograph the wild creatures and hidden corners of this ancient and powerful river. It's one of the finest places in the world to watch whales, and includes at least seven species. Along the shore, the Gaspe peninsula rises through gentle rural hillsides, where a herd of relic caribou still survives.

Few have seen the rugged land of Newfoundland's interior, until now. All of its elements are revealed in this episode, as John and Janet Foster fly above the glittering icebergs off Newfoundland's east coast, walk along the concentration of sea birds on Green Island, seek arctic hare and caribou on the vast Buchan plateau, and explore the rich geography of Gros Morne National Park.

For more than 20 years, naturalists across North America thought the Giant Canada Goose was gone-pushed into extinction by the plows and shotguns of early settlers. But somewhere, a nucleus of life had survived. This wildlife story is related by John and Janet Foster, as they trace the life and behavior of the Giant Canada goose-a bird that finds its wild country close to man.

For many Canadians, the time of the snow comes as a special paradise. Winter is no longer a test of survival-but a season that northern man is beginning to explore and enjoy. This episode explores winter-from the deep cold of January to the rushing torrents of spring, as John and Janet Foster take their cameras and snowshoes across the north.

From the silence of a coastal rainforest to the rolling surf, this region of Canada is a world apart. It's also where a National Park is taking shape on the outer rim of Vancouver Island. John and Janet Foster explore this park-camping on wild Pacific islands, filming the soaring flight of bald eagles, colonies of sea lions roaring on rocky islets, and California grey whales in the open sea.