The Arizona Republic
Sept. 18, 2008 04:33 PM
The glass-bottomed Skywalk offers tourists the thrill-ride sensation of walking on air over the Grand Canyon.
The innovative horseshoe-shaped structure, situated on the remote Hualapai Reservation in northwestern Arizona, attracted attention from around the globe even before it opened to the public in March 2007.
Although the attraction is heavily targeted to visitors from Las Vegas, many Arizonans will drive there, approaching either from Kingman (70 miles away) or Peach Springs (53 miles), the Hualapai capital.
Unpaved stretches of road - 14 miles if you start in Kingman, 45 miles if you start in Peach Springs - make the drive time nearly identical, about an hour and a half.
After the long drive, the small but rapidly expanding airport seems a hive of activity. The airport gift shop sells T-shirts, snacks, sodas and all sorts of souvenir items.
The Skywalk, at Eagle Point, is just a few minutes away by bus. Once there, your driver will point out the image of an eagle, its wings outstretched, on the rock wall across the Canyon. Rock ledges, many of them unprotected by fences or guardrails, stand atop sheer drops.
You can walk around the Indian Village, an assortment of Native American dwellings, including a Plains tepee, a Navajo hogan, a Hualapai wickiup and a Havasupai sweat lodge here, or watch the ceremonial dancers who frequently perform at the nearby amphitheater.
But most people come to Eagle Point for the Skywalk.
After climbing steps to the top, you'll pull non-scratch booties over your shoes. The clear part of the glass is about 5 feet wide, with about 2 feet on either side resting on metal. Those two parallel paths offer some relief to acrophobes, as do the handrails and the 5-foot-high glass panels that stand along the walk.
Even though your brain knows better, you can't help but feel a twinge in the pit of your stomach as you step out over the abyss and contemplate the fact that the only thing between you and a nearly half-mile fall is 2.8 inches of clear glass.
The views are undeniably terrific. However, unlike artists' renderings you may have seen, the Skywalk sits atop a side canyon rather than the main gorge. The straight-down drop from the outermost point of the Skywalk is substantial, but it's far less than the often-touted 4,000 feet. And while you can see the Colorado River a considerable distance to the north, you don't walk over it.
Visitors may not carry cameras, cellphones or other personal items on the Skywalk. Professional photographers take photos of all visitors on the Skywalk. Those photos may be purchased.
Other activities at Grand Canyon West include picnic meals at Guano Point, visits to the Hualapai Ranch Old West town, ceremonial dances, helicopter trips, river-rafting trips and horseback riding.
A multilevel 6,000-square-foot visitor center, complete with a restaurant, museum, theater, gift shop and bars (originally scheduled to open by December 2007), remains under construction.
The innovative horseshoe-shaped structure, situated on the remote Hualapai Reservation in northwestern Arizona, attracted attention from around the globe even before it opened to the public in March 2007.
Although the attraction is heavily targeted to visitors from Las Vegas, many Arizonans will drive there, approaching either from Kingman (70 miles away) or Peach Springs (53 miles), the Hualapai capital.
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Unpaved stretches of road - 14 miles if you start in Kingman, 45 miles if you start in Peach Springs - make the drive time nearly identical, about an hour and a half.
After the long drive, the small but rapidly expanding airport seems a hive of activity. The airport gift shop sells T-shirts, snacks, sodas and all sorts of souvenir items.
The Skywalk, at Eagle Point, is just a few minutes away by bus. Once there, your driver will point out the image of an eagle, its wings outstretched, on the rock wall across the Canyon. Rock ledges, many of them unprotected by fences or guardrails, stand atop sheer drops.
You can walk around the Indian Village, an assortment of Native American dwellings, including a Plains tepee, a Navajo hogan, a Hualapai wickiup and a Havasupai sweat lodge here, or watch the ceremonial dancers who frequently perform at the nearby amphitheater.
But most people come to Eagle Point for the Skywalk.
After climbing steps to the top, you'll pull non-scratch booties over your shoes. The clear part of the glass is about 5 feet wide, with about 2 feet on either side resting on metal. Those two parallel paths offer some relief to acrophobes, as do the handrails and the 5-foot-high glass panels that stand along the walk.
Even though your brain knows better, you can't help but feel a twinge in the pit of your stomach as you step out over the abyss and contemplate the fact that the only thing between you and a nearly half-mile fall is 2.8 inches of clear glass.
The views are undeniably terrific. However, unlike artists' renderings you may have seen, the Skywalk sits atop a side canyon rather than the main gorge. The straight-down drop from the outermost point of the Skywalk is substantial, but it's far less than the often-touted 4,000 feet. And while you can see the Colorado River a considerable distance to the north, you don't walk over it.
Visitors may not carry cameras, cellphones or other personal items on the Skywalk. Professional photographers take photos of all visitors on the Skywalk. Those photos may be purchased.
Other activities at Grand Canyon West include picnic meals at Guano Point, visits to the Hualapai Ranch Old West town, ceremonial dances, helicopter trips, river-rafting trips and horseback riding.
A multilevel 6,000-square-foot visitor center, complete with a restaurant, museum, theater, gift shop and bars (originally scheduled to open by December 2007), remains under construction.
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