Skysquawker
March 29, 2007 by cynthia
Ain’t bad enough that you trust your life to funky engineering…you gotta also PAY for the privilege. Through the nose.
Developers officially opened the $40M Grand canyon skywalk this week. This horseshoe-shaped bridge to nowhere swings out 70 feet over the canyon floor. Glass-bottomed, it lets tourists see all the way the river below, more than 4,000 feet. That’s about four times higher than the Empire State Building without its antenna.
They say the skywalk can withstand the weight of 71 loaded Boeing 747s, 100mph winds from 8 directions and an 8.0 magnitude earthquake as close as 50 miles away. It can also put a large hole in your wallet.
Unless you have a high-clearance 4-wheel drive you’re willing to sacrifice–the roads are that bad–you’ll pay $10 person for a shuttle to get you over to the skywalk, which is about 14-15 miles away from the usual tourist stops. And you’ll also likely pay to park. If you’d rather not drive, you can spend about $300 (per person) to take a helicopter directly to the site.
Once you get there, $50 lets you see the skywalk. If you actually want to skywalk, that’s anywhere from $75 to $200 per person. $600 to $2,000 to walk on a bridge? Don’t think so.
Of course, we’ve never really recompensed the Hualapai Tribe, who owns it, for seriously screwing up their homes. Maybe this is a clever way to finally get some reparations.
Still, I keep looking at that chest-high glass rail separating skywalkers from gravity, and the soft, slippery socks visitors must wear to protect the glass floor…and wonder if the designers ever saw stuff scooped out of the back of a speeding pickup by wind and goofy pressure differentials…one good splat could wipe out a heck of a lot of that profit.
Avoid this tourist trap! 1. The site is not ready, evidenced by total disorganization from start to finish. 2. The cost was too much for the value-$346 for a family of five (three young kids) 3. The road up is 12 miles of HELL. Wash pan for 12 miles and it is going to get worse before it gets better. Add and extra 1 1/2 hours for this 24 mile gem. Everyone wants tips, from the ladies who swipe your credit card (tip jar out) to an Indian chief who stands by the bus as you get back on with his tip basket. (I expect this in Vegas-like a Elivis guy who will let you take a photo with him for tips, but not here.)
5. The whole site plan is horrible, for example the tour buses are too big to make a turn at the sky walk-so they make a K turn rolling down toward the canyon!!! (Also, there are no guard railsbetween you and the edge of the canyon. Scary! Tip Basket on bus) 6. NO Camera’s on SKYWALK ALLOWED!. They don’t want you to drop them and damage the canyon!!! They are planning, eventually, to have someone take photo’s of you (like a cruise ship and of course you can buy those!) 7 . They will serve you a FREE lunch with paper plates, napkins and cup which in 20 minutes I watch several blow down into canyon-so much for protectiong the sacred land!! (tip basket included here also) Avoid!! Avoid! Avoid! We were disappointed and feel taken. We do, however strongly recommend visiting the Grand Canyon National Park.
No cameras? What’s the point… I’m all for the tribe making a buck, lord knows they’ve been screwed for a LONG time…but they probably had some promotional huckster telling ‘em that THIS IS THE WAY TO DO IT. Probably a white guy… and the screwing will continue when they find out that the number of people coming out there will dwindle and dwindle.
GcB