This is another hike not recommended for anyone
with a fear of heights. You will gain 1500 feet in elevation
along this 2.5 miles hike and will ascend the steep switchbacks
of Walter's Wiggles. There are beautiful views along the way.
Again, you start on the valley floor by crossing the Virgin River
on a big footbridge. Although very steep, the first part of the
trail, which follows a wide man made trail (mostly paved to keep
erosion in check) for about 2 miles, was not to hard to deal with.
We started the hike in midday and it was really hot. The views
along the way were excellent.
Even though we were prepared for 1500 feet attitude gain in 2.5
miles we were not prepared for what came after the first
2 miles. We figured it's another half mile, how long can it take,
maybe 15 or 20 minutes of hiking. And why is this hike so famous,
there was nothing special up to this point. Beautiful views, ok,
but you can see that everywhere in Zion. And then we noticed that
the nice wide trail came to a stop and from now on our hike will
be on a steep and narrow rocky ridge. We lost two people in our
group who decided they won't try this part and they'll wait for us
at the 2 miles mark. But the good part was that the park service
has been there ahead of us and put up chains which were very
useful during the climb. What complicated matters even more was
the two way traffic, people going up and coming down. At the top
you'll find the most amazing view of all, the Zion Canyon at your
feet. Along the way it looks like there are plenty of hikers on
this trail but when we reached the summit we were the only ones
there and it was the same way for almost half an hour.