[Bright music] Walkin' West is sponsored by the Chicken Ranch Casino Resort in historic Jamestown, California.

Home to the great outdoors of the mother lode, Chicken Ranch Casino Resort, owned by the Chicken Ranch Rancheria of Miwok Indians of California.

Walkin' West is sponsored by Mountain House, where we've been feeding hungry hikers freeze-dried meals since 1969.

We invite you to walk west in a respectful, responsible way and to always leave no trace behind.

Mountain House.

I'm Steve Weldon at boy do I love adventure!

Whether it's a good long hike, climbing a big old rock or checking out that secret swimming hole, I'm raring to go!

Join me as we hike from the Crest of the Rockies to the beautiful Pacific Coast, right here on Walkin' West.

( MUSIC ) Hi, I'm Steve Weldon.

Welcome to Walkin' West and we have picked a doozy of a place to be for a wonderful fall day Where did I pick?

Ouray Colorado.

Now I came up here as a young boy when I was all about nine years old or so And I never forgot it.

The mountains were so majestic all the aspens, all the pine trees Everything here was just absolutely beautiful.

the history from the Native American history to the mining history you name it It's all here in ouray.

and so we're gonna walk the muirs trail today, but I'm not gonna do it alone I called just on a whim a fella that I interviewed when I did radio many, many years ago His name is Gary Morris and he is one of the "lights out" country singers of all time What an incredible voice this man has and he's gonna join me on the hike.

How you doing Gary?

I'm good.

There was a girl down there in a bikini handed me this and she said that you're Steve's up there somewhere on the hill I told you you would get a welcome, a Texas-sized welcome in Colorado!

Well, was she cold?

No, she, I don't know, I couldn't see any chill bumps.

(laughing) But, God, this is, you know, my youth every summer was just over the hill and here in oUray and up in Silverton.

Just unbelievable.

When I interviewed you on the radio, it was Christmas time around 1985, and you saw my guitar.

I used to sing the Weather.

and you saw my guitar there in the studio, and you said, "Steve, would you like to do "a Christmas song together?"

And I said, "Well, that would be great."

And you said, "How about "Silent Night?"

"Do you know that?"

And I said, "Yeah, I know "Silent Night."

And he said, and you said, "well, sing "Harmony" with me."

And I said, "Yes, sir."

And I sang "Harmony" with you, and at the end of the day, I went home and a family member said, "Boy, Gary Morris was incredible."

I said, "Yes, he was."

And then they said, "Steve and you?"

I said, "Yeah."

And he said, "You sounded like a calf in a hail storm."

(laughing) And that was my fondest memory of Gary Morris.

- I'm sure it was a wonderful, wonderful performance.

(laughing) Well, maybe I'll get you to sing with me if I do something a little later after our hike.

- There you go, let's hike.

- All right, man.

- Life is good, Gary.

( music ) Wow Gary!

The wow factor here is 10 times wow, I guess, because we picked probably the best fall day we could have ever picked.

- You know, in my wildest dreams, you know, I live way down south, I wouldn't have guessed that there'd be snow and ice on the road coming in.

It was like an inch of ice coming over Red Mountain Pass.

- Wow!

We woke up this morning and we got here, it was 29 and it had just snowed several inches and it's just beautiful though.

- Yeah, it's unbelievable.

- The snow on the mountains and these beautiful aspens and we get a little wind later on and they'll be quaking like crazy.

laughter What brought you to Colorado, Gary?

- Well, you know, I came up here when I was a kid with my family and I swore I'd come back someday, but my buddy called me and said, "Hey, you wanna go to Colorado for the summer?

We'll get a job, we'll chase girls and make new construction or something and maybe we can sing."

And that was the beginning of my singing career.

- Really?

- Yeah.

How long will these aspens be at this color?

- Well, it'll run about three weeks, which you've got.

Right here, you have kind of a more orangey gold and further up there, more yellow.

The temperature is what changes.

It's not the sunlight, but if you look over here, back up in here, all around the edge, all of the aspen have turned.

Well, they are the ones that block the wind and the cold, so you've still got green up in there.

But this whole thing is gonna be on fire with this unbelievable gold, yellow, and I like them right now.

- It's unbelievable.

I live down south, and I've got 13,000 foot peaks by me, but they're not snow-capped like this.

Won't be long before the Silverton train won't be coming up.

Silverton will actually evacuate.

There'll be virtually nobody there, and some of the best skiing in the world will be happening right up here.

( music ) - What a great hike we've had today, Gary.

- I can't, you know, there's really no words.

If you don't have some kind of faith in God, you need to come here and see what really he created.

- And God created one other wonderful thing, and that is the most wonderful singing country voice I ever heard in my life.

And guess what?

We're gonna say goodbye from the trail, and we're gonna sing, well, I'm not gonna sing, I'm gonna do you a favor.

- Oh, thank you.

I remember our last duet.

- Our last encounter.

I don't want the "calf in a hailstorm" line again!

- All right.

- All right, let's go sing.

- All right.

What a great day.

[MUSIC - "PAINT ME A RIVER"] Paint Me a river and let it be me.

Let me fall off the mountain and run to the sea.

Ahead of the current, drifting and free.

Paint me a river and let it be me.

( MUSIC ) Paint me a sunrise as the night slips away.

And while you're there sleeping, I'll shed light on your day.

And all your tomorrows, just you and me.

Paint me a sunrise and let it be me.

( MUSIC ) If you see that rainbow and we both agree, then paint me a river and let it be me.

( MUSIC ) Thank you.

We're in downtown ouray, which became a town in 1876 and you know what?

It's never lost its charm.

This is the oUray County Museum, which is rich with Native American history, artifacts, an incredible gun collection, and mining history galore.

Let's meet our oUray County Museum historian Robert Stouffer for a grand tour.

What are we seeing here Robert here in the mineral room?

These are mostly minerals from around the san Juans, around oUray, Silverton, Telluride, Lake City.

The state mineral of Colorado is the pink mineral that you see scattered through the cases.

It's called rhodochrosite.

The most common mineral here is quartz.

I was told that wherever there's quartz, there's gold.

Is that right?

No!

So that's how much I know about geology.

( laughter ) well that's how much I know about geology!

What is the name of this mine replica Robert?

This is the Camp Bird 14 level complex, and the biggest building is the mill where they would crush the ore to get the different metals out.

This is the Native American Room.

The rug on the wall is a Navajo rug, probably from Arizona, New Mexico.

But most of the artifacts are from this area, including the valley down to the north of oUray.

Chief oUray was known as "the peacemaker."

He spoke several languages and after the Meeker Massacre got white women and children back that had been kidnapped by the Northern Utes.

I want to thank you for the wealth of information you supplied from geology to Native American history to the mining history of the area.

This is a wealth of information.

Thanks for having us.

Well it's our pleasure.

And thanks for being on Walkin' West.

Yeah.

Thank you ( music ) Boy, it's a little nippy this morning.

[LAUGH] It is.

Well, we are here.

We got a great night's sleep last night.

Well, I say that.

My brother was snoring quite a bit, but I managed to get a good night's sleep.

And now we're at the perimeter trail head.

That's the oUray perimeter trail head with our All Star Guide, Ames Risch.

How you doing, Ames?

I'm good.

How are you, Steve?

I'm doing great.

Nice to see you on this cold, nippy morning.

I know.

But it's kind of refreshing.

Yeah.

And we're going to have a wonderful hike.

How long is this hike going to be?

Well, today we're only going to do about half of the perimeter trail.

It's about six miles round trip, but we'll do the first half of it today.

Okay, so we'll do about three miles today.

Yeah.

Okay, and you have built this great kiosk here.

-yeah -And you've got a map.

Can you show us exactly where we're going to hike today?

Yeah, well, you read my mind, Steve.

So I was going to point out where we are.

So we're here at the visitor center trail head.

Today we're going to do some climbing up onto some cliffs.

And from up here, we'll get spectacular views off to the south and the west of the mountain Range.

Wow, okay.

then we are going to come down to the cascade falls which hopefully has a little bit of moisture in it because we've got some snow and rain.

We're going to continue across here.

We'll go through a section called the "baby bathtubs" which is one of my favorites.

-Okay - Andthen we're going to go up through the potato patch up to the high point and we'll end down here around the highway, which actually makes a really good halfway mark and a bail point.

( music ) I feel a little bit like Homer Simpson when I'm walking down this trail.

Well, now that you mentioned it, Steve, I think I do see some resemblance here.

( laughter ) ( music ) Well, the view of the town of oUray is just amazing right here.

When was the town of oUray founded?

Well, the town was actually founded in 1876.

You can see the main street here going up with quite a few older buildings on it.

You see that red maple?

Just to the left of that is our county courthouse.

The red brick is the Beaumont Hotel, which was one of the jewels back in the late 1800s of hotels in the west.

And mining was the main industry here.

So they began discovering minerals in this area in the early 1870s.

The town was founded at one point.

There were 3000 people living in this little town.

I don't deserve to feel this good.

This is incredible!

It's a gorgeous day.

( music ) What I really love when I'm hiking these trails is when I run into people that have a lot of pop in their pistol and a zest for life.

And I have met these two beautiful young ladies along the trail.

Ah, your eyes are a little bit blind I think.

Oh no, no, no, no, no.

You are beautiful young ladies because you are smiling like crazy and you're very pretty as well.

But I love somebody with that pop, that zest for life and you guys have it.

Where are you from and what's your name?

I'm Meredith from Ann Arbor, Michigan.

And you?

I'm Ellen, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Nice meeting you.

We're in kind of close quarters here.

This is a very narrow trail and you're down here, you're hiking and looking at all the fall colors, right?

Yeah, it's gorgeous.

We're doing a whole trip of Colorado.

Wow!

Okay, now you're going to hike the entire perimeter trail?

We're attempting it when we have Michigan lungs.

So, for me, it's a little rough going but I'm working my way.

Water, yeah.

You've got the water, you've got the hiking shoes, you've got the poles and you've got the spirit that it takes to get around.

As long as you do it slowly and carefully, as you know, it can be treacherous.

Yes, we don't want to go down there.

No, and you're too darn nice to get hurt.

Alright, well have a safe hike and hopefully we'll see you again along the trail.

Thank you very much.

Pleasure to meet you.

Thank you.

( music ) We're about to check out Cascade Falls on the Perimeter Trail.

The oUray Trail Group, which Ames is president of, keeps these trails safe and pristine for everybody to enjoy.

( music ) Well, we're here at Cascade Falls and I could not help but notice these three smiling faces.

What's your name and where are you from?

Karen, I'm from New Jersey.

Hi, Debbie from New Jersey.

Okay.

And Jill, I live here.

And you live here.

Oh my gosh, you have got it made!

Yes.

And you guys come down here often?

We love your Ouray You came out for a wedding and keep coming back.

And this trail, the Perimeter Trail, is dog friendly and you just introduced me to a puppy that is just beautiful!

What's the puppy's name?

Enzo.

-Enzo?

Well, can I give Enzo a treat?

Sure.

All right, let's see if I can do this.

Hey, Enzo.

Come here, boy.

Good boy.

Yeah!

Yeah.

You like that?

I think Enzo's a happy boy, aren't you?

Yeah.

Thanks for being on Walkin' West, Enzo.

Come on, let me hear it.

Woof, woof!

Okay.

Well, I tried.

Not everybody wants to talk to old Steve here.

Thank you, ladies, for being on Walkin' West.

Thank you.

Hike safely.

( music ) We've just crossed over to the "Baby Bathtubs" Trail.

It got it's name due to the little rocky potholes, which resemble baby bathtubs.

They were formed by the shallow water of Little Portland Creek.

This is beautiful now, but I can only imagine what it looks like in late spring and early summer.

And darn it all, I forgot my rubber duck!

Now it's off to the canyon.

No wonder your Ouray is called the "Switzerland of America."

( music ) Well our next stop, Box Canyon Falls.

This is gonna be good.

( music ) Box Canyon Falls is a short trail roughly 500 feet long that is owned and operated by the town of oUray.

It's open to the public and well worth the visit.

It's a gorgeous part of the hike.

Thanks Lord for the railing.

I'm a little clumsy at times.

Box Canyon is the result of Canyon Creek narrowing and spilling thousands of gallons of water into this narrow quartzite wall gorge.

Boy, I love the sound of that rushing water.

I could stay here all day.

These narrow rock walls tower over the falls by nearly a hundred feet!

That water is shooting out of there with brute force.

Whoa!

Mother Nature, you never cease to amaze me.

( MUSIC ) Well, we're on day three our last day to hike and we're gonna finish up on the beautiful oUray perimeter trail.

And I'm here again with my all-star guide Ames and where are we gonna go today Ames?

Good morning Steve.

We're now on the west side of the highway.

We're gonna come visit the Uncompah Gray Gorge.

Look at the Via Ferrata and the ice park where they climb in the gorge in the winter.

Then we'll cross the High Bridge over at Box Canyon and we'll loop around the west side of town taking in all these beautiful views.

( music ) Boy, all the different kinds of conifers and junipers we're seeing!

There's some amazing botany here.

when i go on a hike like this I completely forget about all the stress that we have in our daily life and hiking a trail like this really does put me in my happy place.

Oh my gosh, I've been looking forward to this stop on the trail all day long.

Just when I thought Ames had taken us to the pinnacle of the Ouray Trail, we come across this incredible feature called the VIA Ferrata.

I'm here with our good friend Dawn Glantz.

How you doing Dawn?

Great, to be here Steve.

Well it's great to be here too.

How about you Lou?

How are you?

I'm doing good.

I am the head ranger at the oUray VIA Ferrata.

So my job is to take care of the daily operations and the staff here at the VIA Ferrata.

Okay, what does VIA Ferrata mean in English?

VIA Ferrata means iron way.

And so this is a place where people come and they must have the appropriate equipment which is a helmet, a harness and the VIA Ferrata lanyard.

And if they have that equipment, they're welcome to come and climb for free as long as they are between 88 pounds and 265 pounds.

Now how long have you been doing this Lou?

Well my first time was when it opened which I believe was four years ago.

Okay.

And it was with a lot of trepidation.

But my friend Dawn here said "Yes you can!"

So I said "No I can't."

She said "Yes you can.

I'll go with you."

Well, what were you afraid of?

I have a terrible fear of heights.

And this was very intimidating to me.

You have a fear of heights and you're climbing that rock wall?

( laughter ) Yeah, yeah.

I conquered it.

What I find so cool about what we're seeing is that we've got a professional climber mentoring a senior amateur climber who is challenging herself to overcome her fear of heights.

The first part of this VIA Ferrata on the downstream route is definitely a challenging section.

The reason being is that we want people to get a hang of what we're trying to get you to do right away so that the ranger can help instruct you.

You can see that Lou is pulling on the cable in order to move through the canyon efficiently.

That's what VIA Ferrata means.

Iron way.

So she's going to pull on the cable in order to make her way.

( music ) Lou went down on the beginning of this downstream route and she's heading towards the Uncompahgre River.

She's going to cross over on a three-wire bridge to the opposite side from where we're standing.

She'll then make her way down towards County Road 361.

Now it's Dawn's turn to climb and we're about to see a real pro in action.

Look at how confident she is on that rope bridge.

( music ) This young lady sure knows what she's doing.

( music ) Dawn has everything set up here so that anyone in reasonably good physical shape can climb here at VIA Ferrata.

( music ) This looks like great fun!

Matter of fact, I think I'm going to come back here when I have the time and climb here at Via Ferrata.

Look at them go!

( music ) You're looking good, ladies.

I'm proud of you.

( music ) I think they're just about done.

( music ) Way to go!

Yeah buddy!

You guys were incredible!

Thank you!

- Whoo Hoo!

Did you have any tedious moments?

You gotta pay attention.

There's never a time when I'm nonchalant about it.

So when you get to the cable bridge it's a little bit transition from your front mountainside to the cable.

Okay.

So you got to pay attention make sure you're getting hooked off and putting your foot in the right places so that you can cross that cable safely.

Thank you ladies for a wonderful time at Via Ferrata.

Thank you!

( music ) We're gonna take another short hike at Box Canyon.

We're gonna talk with Ames's Dad, bob risch who pioneered the perimieter trail years ago, for all of us to enjoy.

How did you know that this could be a trail?

- I'd heard the talk about a trail around ouray and is that possible?

As far as I know, I'm the first person to actually think, well, I'm gonna start hiking around and see, is it possible?

Because one of the first places we started to build the trail was a cliff section that led over toward Cascade Falls.

- Okay.

- And that terrain is very steep, but I knew there was a herd of elk that would spend the winter up there.

And I figured out if a couple dozen elk can walk along a cliff band, then people can walk along it too.

So I went up and hiked that back and forth and hiked it with the forest service.

And they agreed that this could be turned into a trail that people would find interesting.

- This is amazing.

Thanks for being on Walking West, my friend.

- Yeah, you bet.

( music ) - We're now on the high bridge at Box Canyon that goes through this real neat tunnel across the gorge.

( music ) This must have been a nightmare to dig through.

( music ) Better watch my noggin' here.

( music ) I don't think I need to kill any more brain cells.

( music ) I'm glad you told me to watch my head.

- Now isn't that something?

- Oh, this is great.

This is wonderful.

We've kind of circled around Box Canyon and now we're crossing the lower bridge headed back.

( music ) This has been one amazing and unforgettable hike on a perimeter trail in and around oUray, Colorado.

Life is good.

We have just finished the end of the day at the perimeter trail three days of incredible hiking.

Oh my gosh, wonderful!

Isn't that a great trail steve?

Oh my gosh.

This area is so beautiful!

I mean, I have never enjoyed anything so much.

I don't think in my entire life.

Well, I really enjoyed hiking with you It's a spectacular trail.

Thank you And it was so nice to see families, you know with the kids and their pets and and grandma and everybody hiking these trails I love it.

My mom wrote a book "Hiking OUray with kids and everyone else" and we see a lot of families grandparents and grandkids using that to prepare themselves And I'll bet you that book because I took a little look at it It teaches you how to hike respectfully responsibly and leave it better than we found it indeed And that's muy importante because I didn't pick up any lItter along the way either.

It was great!

Yeah, but it was wonderful and all I have is thanks.

I want to thank Gary Morris He was incredible and the song he sang was so nice and and I want to thank all the folks Kaylee over at the visitor center.

I want to thank the people at the National Forest Service Yeah, I want to thank my brother Clark who helped so much I want to thank Mark Brant an incredible camera guy, editor you name it He's the bomb and the most and your dad Bob Risch What a bunch of information and what a pioneer when it came to building all these incredible trails and most of all I want to thank you.

Well, thank you Steve.

It's been a pleasure to hike with you.

Well, it's just been wonderful for me Thank you very much for watching walking west be good to yourself.

You deserve it ( MUSIC ) I went hiking in the mountains near OURAY, Colorado.

It was so dang pretty if you saw my grIN you'd have thought I won the lotto.

Every dogGON hike we took left me and my brother Gaspin' It could have been the altitude of the beauty of them there AspEns.

As I say goodbye from old OUray, I have one small request, that you lace up them old hiking shoes and join us walkin' west.

Yeah, don't be a slouch, get off of that couch and join us walkin' west.

That's all!

( POP ) You know brother it's a rough life but somebody's got a livE IT and it might as well be me and you.

- might as well!

LAUGHTER We had a great day shooting today filmING up here IN OURay, it'S beautiful And so is this place where we are this wIESBADEN hot springs and spA.

It's been a wonderful day and a wonderful time.

Thank you everybody in OURAY.

AHH - Life is good.

-This is awesome.

Walkin' West is sponsored by the Chicken Ranch Casino Resort in historic Jamestown, California.

Home to the great outdoors of the mother lode, Chicken Ranch Casino Resort, owned by the Chicken Ranch Rancheria of Miwok Indians of California.

Walkin' West is sponsored by Mountain House, where we've been feeding hungry hikers freeze-dried meals since 1969.

We invite you to walk west in a respectful, responsible way and to always leave no trace behind.

Mountain House.

[Bright music]