♪ (mandolin and hand clapping) [Brandy] I'm a journalist and I'm traveling across my home country, Canada.

On this journey, I'll be experiencing some of Canada's most fascinating destinations.

My next adventure is in Banff National Park in the province of Alberta.

♪ ♪ I've come to the province of Alberta.

It's in western Canada and is famous for its diverse landscapes, cowboy culture and the Canadian Rocky Mountains.

While I'm here, I'll be exploring Banff National Park, Indigenous Tourism and I'll get a taste of the culinary scene.

♪ (flapper ragtime) Banff National Park was established as Canada's first national park in 1887 and was the world's third.

One of the exciting ways to explore Banff National Park is in a custom made open-top automobile that's inspired by the 1930s.

I am with Nathalie Wuthrich.

She's one of the guides here.

Natalie, tell me, when you get on this automobile, what do you see?

You see everything.

We have 360-degree views from the windows out the side, out the front and also out the open top.

We don't have a roof.

There's nothing to obstruct your views up top.

So, we see stunning mountains.

We see lakes.

We may even see wildlife along the way.

And we see some really important pieces of history here in Banff.

And it's just a really easy way to get in some of the best of Banff, and it's a lot of fun.

[Brandy] And tell me, like, you've been on this so many times, do you have certain spots that are your favorite that you love going back to?

[Nathalie] Yeah, so I love going up Surprise Corner and seeing the Banff Springs Hotel.

I also love going up to Mount Norquay.

I see it five times a day, but every time I go up there, it's a different view.

I see something special every time.

[Brandy] Wow.

And I know people come here and they really want to see the Banff Springs Hotel.

It looks like a castle.

Tell me a bit about the history?

The "castle in the clouds".

Absolutely.

So, Sir William Cornelius Van Horn, he was the general manager of the Canadian Pacific Railway.

He was the one that built the railway that united the provinces.

And along the way, he encountered this incredible scenery.

So, he was quoted as saying, well, if we can't export the scenery, we'll have to import the tourists.

So, he built the iconic Banff Springs Hotel, and now it's standing where it is today for us to enjoy every day when we go past.

Wow, I can't wait to get on board.

Me too.

Should we hit the road?

Let's do it!

While on board this vintage style 1930s automobile.

I explore Canada's first national park .

Banff is also part of the Canadian Rocky Mountain Park's UNESCO's World Heritage site, with its Rocky Mountain peaks and turquoise glacier lakes.

Banff National Park attract over 3 million visitors a year.

I have been here many times and the scenery always blows me away in every season.

Nothing beats the scenic drives on offer here.

Sometimes you see wildlife too depending on the season.

And one of my favourite things to do is to explore the unique restaurants and shops in this picture-perfect mountain town and village.

♪ When you're here in Banff National Park, you can explore the bustling Banff Avenue, which has lots of diverse and exciting restaurants and shops.

And one of the iconic restaurants you can visit is the Grizzly House.

It has been here since 1967.

And I'm with Francis Hopkins.

He owns the Grizzly House.

What's so unique about this place?

The Grizzly House is a special place.

It offers a restaurant experience that's not very common and that focuses on an interactive meal.

The fondue is something that's shared between people at the table, and it creates an environment of romance, of humor and laughter that is fairly unique to us.

Tell me a little bit about what's in front of me here?

This is our classic, world famous, as we call it, cheese fondue.

It's a blend of Emmental and Gruyère cheeses that we import from Switzerland directly and cook it to order here in the kitchen.

It's delicious.

[Brandy] And why do you serve fondue at the Grizzly House?

The Grizzly House started off as a disco in the late sixties, and at that time it was required to have food in order to serve alcohol.

The restaurant next door supplied the food until it went out of business.

And when it did, our founder, who was Peter Steiner, who was a Swiss immigrant, went home and scrambled together some fondue sets so that they could keep their liquor license and keep the disco party going.

[Brandy] I love it.

Okay, so it was a disco and then that was in the seventies.

What happened in the eighties and nineties and then where we are now?

[Francis] I think the disco basically burned out at the end of the seventies and things evolved in Banff and we had more tourists visiting.

It became a year-round resort and it developed more into a restaurant.

The disco faded away and the fondue and the restaurant spirit grew.

[Brandy] Well, I can see this bubbling and I can smell it.

Can I jump in and try some of this cheese fondue?

Are you going to try some with me?

Of course.

Any tips on how to do this?

Yes, there's one important thing.

Well actually there are two important things, sorry.

First, the figure-eight pattern.

Really?

Yeah.

Why?

[Franics] It just gives the maximum coverage on the bread cube.

See?

You got it.

[Brandy] Wow.

I didn't know this at all.

I'm learning.

[Francis] And then the other important thing about fondue, you should know... it's one of the mantras is that if you happen to drop the morsel in the pot, it comes off your fork.

The lady has to offer a kiss to the man at the table, Wooo... [Franics] And if a man drops his morsel, he's, of course, the one that has to buy dinner for that night.

I'm sure there's a lot of dropping of bread here.

[Francis] Oh, it definitely happens.

(Chuckles) Mmmmm... That is delicious.

It's really creamy.

How would you describe it?

[Franics] To me it's rich.

It's creamy, super flavorful and warm.

And it tastes like the mountains.

Mmmm...

It's an authentic mountain experience.

I can see how this is romantic.

What are some of the fun stories that have happened here?

[Francis] Without getting into too many specifics, I think it's important to know that The Grizzly House is for lovers and hedonists, for open-minded, fun-loving, experience-loving people.

Ooooh... [Francis] Anything goes when you're here.

Not just dinner, but it's an experience.

And I noticed you have some telephones here.

[Francis] Yes.

An important part of our history and also pretty important today.

What happens?

[Francis] (laughs) Well, who knows exactly what happens?

You can call any table in the restaurant on their phone and strike up a conversation.

So... sometimes in the seventies, the Grizzly House had a role as a bit of a "pickup" place.

And one way to communicate was to call the other tables.

There's a map on the back of the placemat so you can stroll through the restaurant and decide who you might want to call.

Maybe you want to go skiing the next day with someone new.

Invite someone back to your hot tub at the resort and call their table and introduce yourself.

[Brandy] Show me this map.

What a good idea.

Wow, this is so fun.

You know, literally, I could meet a future friend.

Or if you're single, a lover, maybe.

Hello?

(laughs) So, besides that, I also know that you are famous for your exotic meats.

Tell me a bit about those?

[Francis] We specialize in exotic game meats, so we carry and offer meats that a lot of people have never tried before from all over the world.

Our most popular meats, though, are those that are the native wildlife, really from this area.

Mmm.

I can't wait.

Let's try those.

[Francis] All right.

[Francis] All right, Brandy.

Next, we're going to try the meats.

These are a selection of our regional meats.

This is our most popular dish.

And this is the main course here.

This is the Alberta Fondue.

So, it's beef, buffalo or bison, elk and venison.

This is our take on fondue, cooked on the hot rock.

It's polished granite and it's heated to 650 degrees.

So don't be tempted to touch it.

Take a little bit of the garlic butter that adds flavor.

It makes it so that the meat doesn't stick to the rock.

In front of you are a selection of sauces and the sauces range from sweet onion with bacon, horseradish, dijon, a spicy and a teriyaki sauce.

So, it's something for everyone, and you use them after you've cooked the meat.

Ooh, I'm so excited.

This looks amazing.

So do I just take the first row and put it on?

Yeah!

Okay, this one is... beef?

Put it right here?

Sure!

I'll help you get that one.

Thank you.

This one is... um... Buffalo.

Buffalo or bison?

We call it 'bison' here.

Okay and then this one is?

Elk.

Elk and venison, which is also known as deer.

[Francis] Yup, I saw a few tender little venison on my way down here this morning.

And where did this meat come from?

These meats all come from Alberta.

Hence the name of this dish, the Alberta Fondue.

The beef is triple-A Alberta, buffalo, elk and venison.

Wild game that has been eaten here in the Bow Valley for over 11,000 years.

This is our take on the Alberta meat experience.

Could you eat these raw?

Well, you can - we actually serve buffalo and steak tartare here that we chop up for you, to order so you can eat them raw.

Okay, I'll let you start your row.

That's the beef.

You have to remember.

I know.

Which one's which.

The elk, elk's one of my favorites.

Yes.

And venison.

And the venison.

Or deer.

Yeah.

And do you find that people are interested in trying these meats from Alberta?

They are.

This, the Alberta Fondue.

Let me help you out.

Thank you.

It's a two-person thing.

I see this.

It's very romantic or interactive, right?

Yeah.

This has been on our menu for about 35 years.

The Alberta Fondue.

It's really... gives a taste of the place that we're in.

Wonderful.

But I know you have other kinds of meats as well.

What else do you have?

There's some pretty unique things for people to try, like alligator, frog legs on the menu.

We have ostrich.

Normally we have rattlesnake, but we haven't been able to source it for a little while.

So, we have kangaroo at the moment coming from Australia.

Wow.

So, you have something for everybody's palate.

Yeah!

And then, you know, a lot of people want to just stick with the standards, the beef and the chicken, and we offer that as well.

[Brandy] This is so exciting.

[Francis] Some people will eat their meats, especially the game meats really rare like this one you can see is red all the way through.

It's kind of a blue rare.

It gives a really intense, gamey flavor.

For me, I like to be a bit more well-done than that.

[Brandy] I'm a well-done kind of girl.

So, can I start with the beef?

[Francis] Yeah!

And if you're ever worried about how cooked it is, just take your steak knife and you can cut it open right here on the rock, and then you'll have an idea of what it looks like inside.

This is so much fun.

I can see that this is also an experience that takes time.

Like you're not gonna be rushing.

This is not fast food.

No.

All right...

Selection of homemade sauces that you use after you cook the meat, obviously like you're doing.

That one would be the one that I would recommend with the beef.

That's the horseradish dijon, one of my favorites.

I'm going to try it right here.

Oh, my.

[Francis] When you get to the game meats.

It's so good.

[Francis] I recommend trying some of the game meats without the sauce.

Then you're going to get a bit of a, the taste of the flavor of the actual meat itself.

And you know, the bison are roaming in Banff again and reintroduced here.

So interesting that you have bison here again.

So is the second one bison?

Yeah!

Going to try that one right now.

It's so exciting.

[Francis] Of course our meat is not wild meat.

It's all farmed here in Alberta.

Yes.

Because you can't hunt in a national park.

Right?

Right.

I'm learning how to use all these tools.

(laughs) [Francis] There's no right way to do it.

Don't look at my manners!

Okay.

So, I'm going to start.

Which one?

I'm going to just taste this.

This is the Bison, also known as Buffalo.

Mmm, I love that one.

I don't know.

I might go for a bison burger in the future instead of a hamburger.

It's really good.

And it's good for you, too.

Good protein.

So, elk and venison are hunted outside of the national park, but near here.

And the people that hunt eat a lot of this wild meat.

When they come here, they're going to notice that it's a little bit more mild than wild harvested meat, and that's because of they're farmed.

And they have a more consistent diet and they have a more hedonistic, probably, lifestyle than a wild animal would.

So, their body's not under the same stress.

So, it's a bit of a milder taste.

It's nice for the general population to come and be able to try it and it's a bit more maybe accessible than a wild, true wild game meat would be with the stronger flavor.

The elk is really good, but it's a very different taste.

[Francis] Yeah, it's more rich and it has a more kind of, like, liver taste.

A ferrous taste.

Definitely.

Hmm.

It seems more juicy than the bison.

It is.

It's also farmed in Alberta.

So, it's raised in the pasture and there's a limited supply of these meats.

So, it makes them premium meats, but they're becoming more and more popular.

Okay, here we go.

This is the venison.

Mmm!

[Francis] It's good.

This is whitetail deer.

Here, around here, we have whitetail and mule deer.

But the deer meat that we get is white tailed.

It's very mild.

It is.

It's soft and... Well, it's lovely.

Flavorful.

This is so much fun.

Thank you for sharing this experience with me.

This is a wonderful main course that I can imagine you can have a lot of fun with, with your friends or a date because this is that kind of place.

What's the last step?

[Francis] Well, it's what I think is the best part.

That's the chocolate fondue and that's Swiss Toblerone chocolate with a little bit of cream, we melt down and then we're going to dip a selection of fresh fruits into that chocolate to cap things off.

Wow.

Aren't we happy that your father-in-law moved from Switzerland to start this restaurant?

I'm so happy.

Thank you.

OK. Let's try this fondue!

Great.

[Franics] So here we are, the final act.

This is the melted Toblerone chocolate.

And the fruits, some melons and apple and pineapple, oranges.

These little squares are a wafer cookie that comes from the German-speaking part of Italy.

And then my favorite are the bananas and the strawberries.

This sounds incredible.

I'm jumping right in first with a strawberry.

[Francis] Oh, yeah, the best.

[Brandy] And when I think of fondue, this is what I think of.

I always think of this amazing chocolate on top of strawberries.

Hot.

It's just wonderful.

Yeah, this is a good one and a lot of people have experienced it because you can do it at home.

Yes.

mmm...MMMM!

Hot, but not too hot because you want to eat it right away.

And I'm very messy.

Oh, yeah, that's part of it.

(laughing) That's part of being a hedonist.

Just go for it.

Oh, who cares?

Enjoy it!

I am.

This pineapple is so good too, with chocolate.

I have to try the biscuit.

Biscuits are super good.

Whoa.

I've never had biscuits dipped in chocolate.

Chocolate biscuits, dipped in chocolate.

A little bit of melon without the chocolate in between.

Kind of for a refresher.

[Brandy] You know Frances, I just want to thank you for this amazing experience.

I've had a wonderful time.

It's been like a journey with you.

An adventure.

Yeah.

Thank you so much for coming.

I'm glad you got a chance to try out one of the iconic experiences in Banff.

Yeah.

Thank you so much.

Wonderful.

Thanks.

♪ The lands and waters of Banff National Park have been used for centuries by Indigenous people who have lived and hunted here.

The Park is within the present-day territories of Treaty 6, 7 and 8, as well as the Metis Homeland.

While I'm here in Banff National Park, I wanted to have an Indigenous Tourism experience.

So, I reached out to Brenda Holder.

She owns Mahikan Trails and she takes people out on plant medicine walks.

Brenda, what's a plant medicine walk?

A plant medicine walk is a wonderful way for me to help people to learn how to connect to the land.

The land has tons of gifts to offer us, and I'm super excited to show those to you.

I'm so happy that you're here.

Tell me a bit about your Indigenous background?

Well, I was born and raised in Jasper National Park, and that is where my lineage comes from a man by the name of Kwarakwante.

He was an Iroquois that came across the country and settled there.

And then I also have some Cree lineage in that area, too.

Well, I'd like to offer you some tobacco for our walk.

Great.

Thank you.

I'm going to go and make an offering.

Let's go this way.

All right, so, Brandy, just a couple of minutes ago, we made a private offering for our walk today.

And it's really important that we do that.

The tobacco is one of the gifts that was given to us by Creator.

It's one of four sacred plants.

And it's very important that we pay our respects and we also make an offering.

Whenever we take something from the earth, we always want to give something back in return.

And in this case, it's actually knowledge that we're getting.

So, I really wanted to make sure that you experience that with me.

So, thank you.

Thank you.

So, I wanted to stop here by this spruce tree because every time I come to any tree, it reminds me of my grandmother and the beautiful teachings from this tree.

I can't wait to share that with you.

[Brandy] It is beautiful.

[Brenda] Yeah.

This tree has so many beautiful medicines.

And this one in particular reminds me of her because she used this often.

Now, I want to have you taste this tree, but we're not going to gather here.

We're in a national park.

And so we don't want to be taking things that don't belong to us.

The national parks have the same message that I do in my culture.

It's very important that we don't take things just because we can.

And even though we've laid tobacco, we're still in a national park.

So, we're not going to be harvesting anything.

But I'm still going to get you to taste the tree.

Wonderful.

I've pre-harvested in another location and I have laid tobacco.

It looks exactly the same.

Exactly the same.

So, what I'd like you to do is take a needle off.

And I'm going to take one.

And now I want you to put this in your mouth and chew the very tip so - we're not gonna eat it.

I just want you to chew the very tip of it.

Okay?

Get all that juice on your tongue.

and we'll gift that back down.

All right.

So, what's happening to your tongue now?

I feel like there's a lot of sensation and something's going on there.

Right at the tip?

Does it feel a little bit numb to you?

It does.

Yeah!

Right at the very tip.

But if you pay close attention, what you might notice is your tongue is very dry.

Your lips might be a little dry, too, But your tongue is getting very dry.

And that tells us the amazing medicine in this plant.

So, what this plant is specific for these needles, many different gifts, but mostly for the digestive system.

That taste and that drying, that pulling of liquid away from the tongue is what happens in the digestive system.

And if you have diarrhea, which, maybe in a survival situation would be really dangerous for you, but if you had diarrhea, you could use this plant as a tea or you could just even chew on those needles.

It goes into the digestive tract and it pulls that excess liquid out.

And it also has medicine to kill the bacteria in the gut.

Wow.

And it's right here in the forest.

Right here in the forest.

To cure my stomach ails.

For sure.

But you know what?

That's not all.

There's so much more to see.

Let's go this way.

Do you know what this is?

I've seen it many times, but I don't know anything about it.

This is Yarrow, and it's a wonderful plant.

This has probably 1000 uses or more of medicinal aspects to it.

It's pretty impressive.

It has a reputation of being a blood stopper.

People used it to stop bleeding wounds.

And in fact, in England they referred to this as 'Woundwort'.

Wound wort?

Woundwort.

But one of my favorite uses for this plant is down in the root system.

If you pull up the roots and you chew on those, it will make your tongue numb.

So, it was used as a great toothache medicine.

Toothache and woundwort.

This is so interesting and it's very delicate.

It's pretty.

Brenda, how did you learn about all these different ways to use the plants as medicine?

Well, as a child, I spent a lot of time with my grandmother.

She was a real wealth of knowledge of all the medicines that were found in the forest.

And I would spend hours with her.

I was fascinated by this stuff.

[Brandy] Wow.

[Brenda] So, you know what?

I'm ready to go and make some tea.

I can't wait to share what I've got with you.

You ready?

Yes.

[Brenda] I have something pretty special for you here.

This is some mint that I've picked off of my land.

Now, when we greet our guests, it's really important that we offer them some sort of nourishment in my culture, that might be tea or food or both.

Now, we've already eaten some spruce.

I think it's time to have some tea.

This is some mint that I picked.

Have a smell of that.

Smells so good.

Isn't that beautiful?

And it's dry.

And I love this container.

It's so cute.

Yeah.

A little carved birch-bark container.

So, I'm going to give you the big cup.

Thank you.

I will take the little cup.

And put some leaves in there.

There you go.

Thank you.

Mint is a really wonderful medicine and it's a great tea.

It's a plant that loves to have its feet wet and it likes to be close to the mother, and it draws all of its nourishment from the mother.

I'm going to tell you more in just a bit, but let's get some water in here and make the tea.

Sure.

Where did the mint come from?

This is something that I picked off of my property.

It's a wild mint, and that's the one that I like the best.

There you go.

Mmm.

Smells so delicious.

Doesn't it?

It smells beautiful.

This is my favorite tea to drink.

So, mint is a really, really wonderful medicine.

[Brandy] I love this.

Most people, when they drink tea, the mint tea, especially, we use mint as that wake-up kind of thing.

You know, you shower in that sort of stuff and it wakes you up and the tea will do the same thing for you.

It gives you that initial - whoa!

But the most important thing is, is it also then calms and calms the whole nervous system.

This is a really good medicine for the nervous system.

It's so tasty.

I love mint tea.

[Brenda] I do, too.

It's my favorite, especially wild mint.

You know, Brenda, this is the perfect place.

Banff National Park has the mountains in the background.

I'm on this blanket with you drinking wild mint tea and learning about your knowledge.

Thank you so much for spending this time with me and for sharing all these secrets.

It was my pleasure and I really enjoyed spending time with you.

So, thank you.

Thank you.

Being surrounded by majestic mountains in Banff National Park always reminds me of how important it is to spend time in nature.

I love visiting Banff.

Each time I leave feeling refreshed and ready for another adventure.

♪ ♪