Walk the Grand Canyon Skywalk at the Hualapai Indian Reservation

...but its worth every turn! still alot of construction going on so my recommendation is to wait if you can. we did a package where we were bused to other points of interest and were fed a meal of BBQ and cornbread (YMMMM!)

It was my first trip to the Grand Canyon, so I decided to indulge myself with a lot of different “fun” activities:

• the brand-new Skywalk;
• a helicopter trip to the base of the canyon, with a brief river tour;
• lunch at Guano Point.

We also took a side trip to Hoover Dam. It was after dark by the time we got there, so I will have to go back for that one.

Mrs. Monotreme is not shown in the picture, because she is afraid of heights. She took the bottom picture.

Currently, you have to travel over 21 miles of unpaved road to get to the site. It’s not just unpaved road, it’s a horrible, rutted, rock-besotten road. Several people were replacing tires as we drove down, which was sobering to watch.

One parks at the Grand Canyon West airport, and takes a shuttle bus to the site. There were lines for everything. The tribe that owns the land was trying to gear up from (they told me) several hundred visitors per day to 7000 visitors per day.

The queueing and the waits did not bother me. People complaining about it all did bother me. I felt the tribe were doing their best under extremely difficult circumstances.

Because their “commute” to the tribal center was about 60 miles over similarly rutted roads, they would get up at 5 am and not return home until 10 pm. It will probably turn out to be a great financial deal for them in the long run, but in the meantime, they are working really really hard. No one lost their temper or treated me as anything less than an honored guest.

Compared to the “Vegas experience” (we stayed in Las Vegas, the nearest large town), the Skywalk trip was authentic and magnificent. There is nothing to prepare one for the scale of the Grand Canyon, and my mind is still trying to wrap itself around the size of things. It’s overwhelming.

Just returned to our hotel from the Grand Canyon.

It was my first time to see the Grand Canyon, and of course a first time out on the new Skywalk.

I will say the helicopter ride beat the Skywalk for both sheer terror and the beauty and excitement of the trip, but the Skywalk was still … something.

I’m sure I’ll be more articulate later. For now, I’ll just say that I found myself strangely unable to move in any normal fashion while I was out on the thing. I lurched around like a demented zombie, and then finally came back to Earth and could walk normally again.

Pictures to follow when I get back home, where I have a scanner.

I plan to walk it with my future husband on our honeymoon this summer. so if it’s safe I’ll let you all know! (we are engineers so you should trust our judgement! :-)

they say. I will be there as soon after as I can manage. Mrs. Monotreme is not nearly as interested.