'tortuous path' is a correct and usable phrase in written English.
You can use it to describe something that is difficult and hard to navigate. For example, "The journey ahead of us was long and tortuous."
But, oh, the tortuous path by which simplicity was achieved!
Not once during his tortuous path to becoming a major leaguer.
The fructose case has followed a tortuous path over its many years.
South of Monterey, the highway carves an increasingly tortuous path through the wilderness.
But no material object can capture the tortuous path London traveled to become the new coach of the Cavaliers.
The June 7th election was merely the first step on a tortuous path to the formation of a new government.
Doctors must thread a catheter from up the groin, navigating a tortuous path to the delicate brain arteries.
His genius for deceiving them in small ways led them slowly up the tortuous path to great power.
The FBI took a tortuous path to link McNeil to various social media accounts, the affidavit shows.
How did United, once regarded as a potential model for employee-owned companies, end up on this tortuous path?
I left the building by the same tortuous path, watching for those snakes, back to my car.
