The busy lunch spot on the way to Utah’s famed Angels Landing in Zion National Park offers some of the best views on Earth, but thousands of gallons of human waste stored by two outhouses nearby give it the aura of an open sewer despite the park’s efforts to contain the odors.
Park managers installed them several years ago for visitors who receive the call of nature while hanging out at the knife-edge vista rising between Cathedral Mountain and Observation Point.
On Monday, park officials closed the ever-popular West Rim Trail for a few hours as the fecal remains were—ahem—evacuated by helicopter.