Grand Canyon News

The day has dawned gray and drizzly and it makes we wonder – how are they gonna keep the Grand Canyon Skywalk clean?  That’s gonna take one big bucket of Rain-X.

Not surprisingly 9 out of 10 of your calls this morning have been about the Grand Canyon Skywalk.  The first photos and videos are pretty exciting… unfortunately my Blogjet program isn’t letting me post any pictures, but if you’d like to take a look at some cool photos, visit www.azcentral.com; you can also see some video there, or check out CNN.com too.  There’s also a video on YouTube by a director called “Staseman” that shows the road leading to the Grand Canyon West compound – it shows a rental-car type vehicle going down it, which we really don’t recommend you do, but the footage of the surrounding Joshua Tree forest is very pretty. 

So far the most common misconception I’ve encountered about the Grand Canyon Skywalk is that it’s part of Grand Canyon National Park.  It isn’t.  One gentleman in particular that I spoke with last night (who isn’t crazy about the Skywalk) was under the impression that he’d go to Grand Canyon South Rim or North Rim and be forced to look at it.  Another lady thought she would be forced to go on it!  That’s not the case.   

Grand Canyon West and Grand Canyon National Park are separate.  Grand Canyon West is part of the Hualapai Indian Tribal Lands; Grand Canyon National Park is a federally controlled area.  Grand Canyon West is located about 3 hours from Las Vegas; Grand Canyon National Park, depending on what side you go to, is anywhere from 5 to 5.5 hours from Las Vegas.  The main access road to Grand Canyon West is also unpaved for about 20 miles, so it is best to utilize the park and ride shuttle at the Welcome Center in Meadview, or get on a package tour from Las Vegas (Grand Voyager) or Grand Canyon South Rim (Colorado River Heli Adventure).

Even if you do visit Grand Canyon West, you are not obligated in any way to go on the Skywalk.  If you’re content just to enjoy the view from the rim, you can, but there are other things to do, such as trail rides, helicopter flights to the canyon floor, hummer tours, etc. 

Regarding the price – it has been widely publicized that the Grand Canyon Skywalk will cost $25 per person to walk on.  However, this does not factor in entrance fees, rim top transfers, etc., so in reality, it will cost about $75/person to walk on the Grand Canyon Skywalk.  Visit www.destinationgrandcanyon.com and look for the “Sky” package.  You can apparently add the Skywalk on to the other packages too (except for the “Creation” package, which is the basic package).

Folks have asked where they can stay in order to visit the Skywalk.  Here’s where one must remember that Grand Canyon West is a “work in progress.”  There is no lodging in the immediate area of the compound.  The nearest lodging to Grand Canyon West is HeliUSA’s Grand Canyon West Ranch, which is 14 miles from the airstrip.  For more info on it, visit www.grandcanyonranch.com  The next nearest lodging would be in Kingman, Arizona, which is about 90 minutes Southwest of Grand Canyon West.  Kingman has many choices of hotels, both chain and independently owned.  Las Vegas, Boulder City and Henderson are of course good options, though they’ll all be a bit further away (3 hours).  You can also consider Peach Springs, where the two hotels are the Hualapai Lodge and the Grand Canyon Caverns Inn.  For more info on Las Vegas or Kingman hotels, visit www.grandcanyon.com/hotels or call 800–916–8530. 

Another thing – we’re getting a lot of reports that the reservations line at Grand Canyon West has been constantly busy this morning.  That’s to be expected.  They’re buried.  We knew they would be.  It happens to us all.  Just pick a phone with a redial button, be patient, and be persistent.  For those of you who would like that number, it’s 1-877-716-9378 or 702-878-9378 (outside the US). 

I’m out of here, I’m planning a trip of my own to beautiful Ridgway, Colorado this weekend. 

Happy Skywalking, Alley Kaye

P.S.  Stay tuned for updated video on the Grand Canyon Skywalk! 

Today’s the day…. it’s about that time… the event everyone in the Southwest is talking about…T minus three hours until astronaut Buzz Aldrin leads the ceremonial first walk on the Grand Canyon Skywalk.  When contracted to help “christen” the innovative but controversial attraction at Grand Canyon West, Aldrin apparently joked about bringing a parachute.  I wonder if he actually will.  Aldrin will be joined by another retired astronaut, John Herrington, a Chickasaw Indian who rode aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavor in 2002.

So would YOU walk on it?  Take a look at these pictures and judge for yourself…

http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_6470000/newsid_6470400/6470453.stm

Now THERE’s the topic of our next Grand Canyon travel poll….

‘til next time, Happy Traveling and Happy Skywalking! 

Alley Kaye

Many Grand Canyon vacation planners, upon hearing about a particular tour or hotel that piques their interest, will say “tell me more about it.”  Well, right now, we can do you one better – we can SHOW you more about it! 

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a film has to be worth at least a million, and in the last few weeks we’ve gathered a nice little collection of informational videos about Grand Canyon hotels, tours and more.  Where can you see it?  None other than YouTube, of course.  We also have a lot of these videos posted on Google Video, but the cool thing about YouTube is that you’ll not only see Grand Canyon videos that we have made here in-house, but you can also check out the contributions of other people, like our tourism industry colleagues, past Grand Canyon visitors, and folks like you!  Just go to www.youtube.com and type in “GrandCanyon86023.” 

Right now our boss is heading to Las Vegas, and with a little luck, should see astronaut Buzz Aldrin lead the ceremonial first walk on the Grand Canyon Skywalk tomorrow – we’ll keep you posted!

Happy viewing and Happy Travelling – Alley K