Walter's Wiggles trail in Zion National Park, Utah, USA

© Dennis Frates/Alam

The long and wiggling path

In 1926, Walter Ruesch, the first superintendent of Utah’s Zion National Park oversaw the construction of one of the park’s most ambitious trails. It took 258 helicopter flights to haul in the concrete needed to construct the steep 21-switchback trail out of Refrigerator Canyon up to the 453-metre tall rock formation known as Angels Landing, but the view from the top makes it all worthwhile.

Walter’s Wiggles, one of the most difficult and dangerous trails in the park, was added to the US’ National Registry of Historic Places in 1987. As luck would have it, it’s also now one of the most popular. Seems all that hard work paid off!