Andrew Gumbel of The Independent newspaper in Great Britain wrote an interesting piece about the soon-to-be-open Grand Canyon Skywalk and the divisions it’s creating in the Hualapai Indian tribe.
In case you haven’t heard about it, Skywalk is a horseshoe-shaped walkway covered in Plexiglass that juts 70 feet into the Grand Canyon. Near the end of the walkway, it is supposed to give you the feeling of walking on air.
Some in the tribe think Skywalk is a desecretion of holy ground. But others say it will generate revenue for the impoverished tribe. (The tribe became more impoverished, by the way, when mosts tourists bypassed Route 66 for Interstate 40 — dozens of miles to the south.)
There are interesting nuggets of information in Gumbel’s story that lead me to believe that Skywalk won’t be the cash cow that some people hope:
Shuttle buses will ferry visitors over the last 14 miles of unpaved road where, for the giddy price of $74.95 (£39) – $49.95 for a basic Hualapai reservation visiting package and another $25 for the Skywalk itself – they will be invited to don special non-scratch booties over their shoes and step on to the glass walkway to simulate a sensation of floating over the abyss. The edge of the glass walkway will be opaque to reassure the faint of heart, while the middle will be entirely transparent. […]
The business plan is detailed and, in its way, quite relentless. The aim is to double the number of visitors to the Hualapai reservation in the first year. Revenue from the Skywalk will then be pumped into full-scale tourist development – a visitor centre, museum, cinema, gift shop and several restaurants. The helicopter landing pad at Grand Canyon West will be expanded to accommodate larger aircraft. […]
[There are] a lot of unanswered questions about roads, about water and waste management, about future power sources – for the moment, Peach Springs and Grand Canyon West run on generators – and a host of other issues. For now, trucks bring in food and water and ferry waste directly out. If visitor numbers start edging towards the millions, though, that system is rapidly going to become untenable.
Seventy-five bucks sounds like a lot of money for taking a tour bus 14 miles to an attraction that has few other frills. Unless the tribe decides to lower fees or admission prices, many potential tourists will snub Skywalk and go to the cheaper, more accessible South Rim of the canyon instead.
Bob Moore of Route 66 Magazine, who knows the area as well as anyone, says the unpaved road to Skywalk is so bad that it’s challenging for four-wheel drive vehicles. Not many are going to be willing to drive themselves to Skywalk under those conditions. Why the road wasn’t improved before this massive project began is a mystery.
I think doubling the number of visitors after one year is wildly optimistic. And the problems with the lack of basic infrastructure are pretty daunting.
I initially thought that many people would shell out $25 to stroll onto the Skywalk. But after reading the fine print regarding costs and the lack of amenities, I think the projected “millions” of visitors is looking at the situation through rose-colored glasses.
If so much of this is being done on the cheap, what’s to keep one from thinking that the Skywalk itself has also been built in like manner. To me, this sounds like a major disaster in the making. Not a chance that I’d ever go near it.
my gosh why wouldnt they [ut in a tolerable road,this project seems somewhat doomed before it starts .Who waslooking over this as it was planned?
Yes this sounds like quite a spectacular attraction. I think that maybe the individual who financed this project should have thought about the public. There are a lot of adventurous people out there but public facilities need to be provided for that amount of people. It should bring an economic future for the people there but are they willing to have all the rest that comes with it. I hope things turn out for the best, who knows.
Profits,roads,supplies,sanitation.These things,in my opinion,are secondary items on the old check list. No. 1 being the Irwin Allen features this thing proudly displays.
The concept of the Skywalk is all good and well, if you wish to completely ignor the environmental issues. The area is prone to erosion, so who says that the land will be able to sustain such an infrastructure. This infrastructure is just a money making concept and the ethical issues don’t seem to be of concern. This is sacred land that they are just destroying. I don’t think that this infrastructure will be sustainable in the future.
It’s really bad.. People have been posting in my blog about how bad their experiences have been there. no toilets, the power goes out often, and they are standing out in the sun and dehydrating without anything to drink.
The road wasn’t done and won’t be done because it is protected land by the BLM. The rumor mill says the road is set to be paved, but it won’t be. The road is washboard-y and we were afraid our van was going to shake apart.
We were there over a year ago and they haven’t doen anything to improve the amenities of the canyon since then. The builders stuck their necks out putting the thing up, but I don’t think they knew what they were working with in regards to the tribe.. Also, they say the revenue will go to helping their tribe, but you should see the squaller that they have their people who work there living in.
They aren’t ready for this – they don’t get it and I don’t thinkt hey will get it.
However – people are still going there by the droves. People come from Vegas – Europeans who think they are going to “The Grand Canyon” and they don’t understand why they have to pay a minimum of 30 dollars just to look over the edge of the canyon.. the whole area is like a big circus and there are tankers on the edge of the canyon and big fenses to keep you from seeing anything unless you pay. There’s planes and hellicopters all over the place and the parking is a joke.
I’ve owned a ranch just outside the reservation for almost 15 years and Diamond Bar road is not that bad, if you can’t just drive it in a 4wd vehicle you need to quit driving and get a bicycle. Quite honestly it was nicer before the skywalk opened and all the touri started trying to drive out in the family sedan, corvette, or even Limo’s. I used to drive that road at 30-40 mph, now I get stuck behind a line of cars trying to drive less than 5 mph. Get a truck!