summer 07 / 20:2 - Grand Canyon River Guides

The Sky Walk
News of the newly opened Sky Walk out on the
Hualapai Plateau seemed to be flooding over me
for the past couple of months. First it was
releases on the audacity of the plan, then it was news
that the main structure had been placed, and lately that
it was open.
Much of the reaction from the people in my circles
and the press I read has been tut-tut and judgmental.
The take from these commentators is that the whole
scene smacks of carnival and crass commercialism.
Where is the appreciation of nature and quiet
But, I’m innately a curious guy—a guy who likes to
probe the edge, even to be shocked or startled. Guess I
am just another of life’s voyeurs.
Saturday, April 22 found me driving to Grand Canyon
West from my environmentally correct life in prosaic
Boulder City, Nevada. I was on the road to Meadview—so
familiar from so many takeouts—sneaking in alone under
the radar of my politically correct friends and my critical
significant other, headed for my Sky Walk adventure. I
figured this was going to cost me $40 plus gas. I was wrong.
About five miles toward Meadview from the turnoff
from us 93, I became aware that there was a lot more
traffic than I remembered out there. I was thinking that
the Dolan Springs and Meadview developments were
really starting to get a bit congested. Then I found
myself behind one of those big white luxury buses, and
upon passing it noticed that it was labeled Grand
Canyon West Express.
The light dawned, these folks weren’t locals. I started
to notice that the cars I was passing had California
plates, and there were too many from Nevada for this
road. For crying out loud, all these people were heading
for the Sky Walk! I sped up, passed the bus, got as far
ahead of the traffic as possible; because I didn’t want to
eat their dust on the old Clay Springs road on the climb
up to the Hualapai Plateau.
The turn onto the Clay Springs road delivered two
surprises. First, it was a well graded dirt road, where
before it had been a two track decades ago. Dotted
before me was a chain of dust clouds. The road was
congested with more luxury tour buses, pink and yellow
Las Vegas tour company vans, white minivans from all
the other tour companies in the surrounding three
states, and numerous private cars and suvs, many of the
latter driven tepidly by tourists from Kansas testing their
mettle against the washboards, curves and terrain of this
mountainous desert road. Some were going just too slow
at ten miles per hour on that 25-mile leg of the journey.
At that speed the washboard was beating me to death.
We snaked our way up the flank of the plateau. After
fifteen miles of dirt and upon reaching the Hualapai
reservation boundary, we found ourselves on a nice
paved road that took us directly to the Grand Canyon
West airport terminal. The terminal serves as the
jumping off point for tourists. We were all now funneled
into the great white way, with no escape. My wallet
immediately felt insecure.
A greeter on the road directed me to a large parking
lot already crowded with cars and suvs, and I joined the
flow of people moving toward the air terminal which
serves as the visitor center and hub for transportation
out to the attractions that dot Grand Canyon West. The
road fronting the terminal was lined with huge white
luxury buses and vans, all parked herringbone style to
optimize the space just waiting to be summoned. As I
walked toward the terminal, I merged with a bus load of
Chinese who had just disembarked from one of the
white behemoths from Las Vegas, their giddy excitement
being quite infectious.
Inside were three windows at a bank-like counter,
two open, the other closed because the operation is
desperately understaffed. They have a large menu of
tours to select from including helicopter lifts down to
the river where you can join the part day float trips on
Lake Mead. A helpful Hualapai greeter read out the
choices as we waited in line. I chose the stripped down,
minimal tour with the Sky Walk as its centerpiece. This
package is called the Spirit Package—price $49.95 after
the 25 percent local resident discount which the greeter
lady advised me I should request, plus $25 for the Sky
Walk.
No discount for the Sky Walk. You want the walk,
it’s $25 no matter what package you buy! But you can’t
just pay that $25 fee and get on. The Sky Walk has to
be bundled with one of the tours.
My Spirit Package included trips to Eagle Point
where the Sky Walk is located, Guano Point farther out
on the plateau to the west, Hualapai Ranch to the east
of the airport, a Wagonwheel Ride from the ranch,
lunch at either Guano Point or the ranch, and a free
certificate of accomplishment at the gift shop.
The fellow in front of me was buying tours for three
or four people, his tab over $380! Out came a fan of
$100 bills.
There was activity and new construction in every
direction from the airport. They are elongating the
runway to accommodate Boeing 737s. The existing
runway is crowded with tour planes representing every
operator who is anyone in the region. You’ve seen them
all. The whomp whomp of helicopters taking off and
landing is omnipresent, from a heliport across the road
from the terminal. Aircraft and helicopters were parked
all over the place.
page 10
grand canyon river guides