West Rim Trail – Angels Landing & Walter’s Wiggles Viewpoint
Angels Landing is Joe’s favorite trail, and a tie for second for me (the other being Bright Angels in Grand Canyon). Today is our third, and likely final, Angels Landing hike before the lottery permit system takes effect in 2022. It is unfortunate that a permit system needs to be implemented, but due to overcrowding it is necessary for safety reasons.
In addition to hiking up Angels Landing, my plan for us is to hike further up the West Rim Trail past Scout Landing to get a bird’s eye view of Walter’s Wiggles for the first time.
What a difference 5 months makes. Unlike the 2 hour wait before the break of dawn in June, we managed to strolled right onto the shuttle at 7:30 this morning.An 8AM start to our hikeThe added bonus of hiking in November is enjoying the yellow foliage contrasting against the red rocks.Looking up towards the first set of switchbacks
We didn’t stop to take many pictures on the way up as we were trying to pass as many people as we could, so that we wouldn’t get tied up at the chain portion of Angels Landing.
Looking towards the valley from the bridge that spans the Refrigerator Canyon For me, the canyon is my favorite section of the trail.Heading up towards Walter’s WigglesUp the 21 switchbacksLooking down the switchbacks and into the canyonScout Landing is where the Angels Landing trail splits off from the West Rim trail. The plan is to head up West Rim after coming back down from Angels Landing.Already a good number of people heading up Hiking up on the ridgeWe spent a good hour just soaking up the view up top while enjoying our mid morning sandwich.And managed to get our photos taken – there are usually few photos of the two of us on our travels.Dangling my feet 2,000 ft above the valley On our way back down we caught a view of the West Rim trail in the distance Beautiful marbling of colors in the rocks
Back at Scout Landing, we hung a right to hook back onto the West Rim trail. This begins our search for the best view of Walter’s Wiggles. There is no official viewpoint, and if you didn’t know to look for it, you’d never see it because you can’t see it from the trail. The most important thing is to know where Walter’s Wiggles is in relation to Scout and Angels Landing. Once that’s figured out, then it’s just a matter of figuring out how to get to the best vantage point.
Trail is less technical, but no less beautiful.At the first outcrop, we were afforded a view of Angels LandingZoom in and see the human chains up the spine.The West Rim trail led us up towards the White Cliffs.The second outcrop along the trail gave us a view of the Temple of Sinawava shuttle stop, the Virgin River, and the River Walk along side it that ultimately leads to the Narrows (my all time favorite trail).A view of the valley
Soon we arrived at the slickrock, and this is where we started to look for Walter’s Wiggles.
The views from here, however, were not ideal.Past the slickrock is where we could get a slightly better view. However, we had to walk off the trail towards the canyon cliff, which I don’t recommend due to the risk of falling into the canyon.Partial view of Walter’s WigglesThe best view point is actually across the Refrigerator Canyon at the red rocky outcrop (red arrow) at the base of the big white puffy mountain.In order to cross over to the other side of the canyon, we needed to take the social trail (left off the main trail) at the head of Refrigerator Canyon. This junction was approximately 40 minutes from Scout Landing.Possible big horn sheep tracksOnce over, we headed south towards the big white puffy mountain.The red rocky outcrop is where we wanted to beVoilà! Walter’s Wiggles with Angels Landing in the backgroundHere’s where we settled down for lunch while we watched hikers maneuver the 21 switchbacks
With tummies full and mission accomplished, it was time to make our way back down.
Back at Walter’s Wiggles – more people coming up.The early afternoon sun lighting up the valley floor Beautiful fall foliage in Zion
This 7-mile hike took us about 5 1/2 hours to complete at a leisurely pace. We figured this may be our last time hiking it so we really took the time to soak in the views.
Big horn sheep are found mainly in the eastern part of Zion National Park owing to the higher elevation of this section of the park, but now we know that they are also up in the higher elevations in the west side of the park as evidenced by the hoof prints we saw near the West Rim trail.
FIRE'd @ 47 