Grand Canyon Skywalk is a sham!
After reading good and bad things about the Grand Canyon Skywalk, we wanted to experience the feeling of “walking in air” on this architectural marvel, that was completed in March, 2007 after 2.5 years and 30 million dollars worth of hard work. After reaching there we were shocked for what it was worth and we DO NOT recommend visiting this horse-shoe shaped glass walkway.
The reasons why we call it a sham are:
1. The road leading to the Skywalk has 20 miles of dirt-road which, surprisingly, is not constructed even after 2.5 years of the opening of Skywalk. This can be be extremely difficult to drive if it’s pouring down.
2. Parking at The Skywalk is provided but access to the Skywalk is only permitted by supplied coach buses. The cost of the coach ride $30, which will take you the Skywalk and two other viewing areas. There is also an additional fee of $45 for being on Hualapai land making the total cost $75 per person.
3. No personal equipment is allowed on the Skywalk and lockers are provided. No photographs may be taken by visitors on the Skywalk! However, up to three photography stations are installed. Photographs taken may be purchased in the gift shop at $29 each.
4. The whole experience of “walking in the air” is impossible because visitors have to walk on a carpet laid on the half-side of the glass floor. Walking on the glass is prohibited which makes it feel like ‘walking on land’!
5. The authorities may close the Skywalk on a slight chance of high wind or rain, and visitors who make it up to the Skywalk parking area, after driving through the dirt road, are NOT informed that the Skywalk will be closed and are still issued tickets. Upon reaching the Skywalk, they are informed that they will have to wait until the winds have died down or the rains have stopped. No refunds!
Video of the 14-mile dirt road
[Sources: Wikipedia and personal experiences]
Damn injuns!
Thank you for the warning. We were planning on stopping there during our fall trip to AZ, but we will stick with the traditional Grand Canyon stuff.
Well, I know somewhere I will never be visiting. I feel as if I should feel sorry for anyone who gets ripped off by this scam, but then again, anyone stupid enough to pay $75 a person for this “attraction”, probably deserves it.
You just saved me a bunch of money. I was definately planning on hitting this site during my upcoming trip to the Grand Canyon. Thanks for the heads up!
I’ld pay $75 to base jump from the thing, but certainly not to look at it. $15/person is more like it (Price of Sears Tower view.)
Wow. That is disappointing. The skywalk sounded cool as hell, but you just killed my excitement. No photos? That’s just a bald-faced cash grab. Gross.
No photography of your own is just out and out highway robbery plain and simple. There is no other excuse for it but why are people surprised by things like this anymore? Anything worth seeing in America has been turned into a massive line creating, money printing tourist trap. Took the kids up the Empire State Building a couple of years ago against my better judgment. Beautiful iconic building but the whole thing was tinged by the 3 hour wait to get up there and the feeling that I’d been grabbed by the ankles, flip upside down and shaken out for everything I had from the moment I walked in there. I’ve traveled A LOT in the United States in my 40yrs and have loved every mile of it but sometimes when I come back home, I wonder if there’s anything left seeing that’s worth the sometimes herculean effort entailed with the experience. Even 20-25 years ago things were FAR different. Somewhere along the line people just began to accept being fleeced as part of any vacation.
What’s with copying the text in this article from Wikipedia?
this is plagiarized from the Wikipedia article. nice job.
Before throwing around accusations of plagiarism, you might want to consider the possibility that the author of this article edited the wikipedia entry himself.
I was able to take pictures, albeit in a stealth mode. No one tried to stop me. This “attraction” is a complete rip-off to the enth degree. You can sneak a camera in, I did. It is a place where if a friend did not pay my admission, I would naver have gone. The south rim is so much better.
Uh, maybe this is the author that WROTE the Wiki article? Did you guys check that?
What will these redskins think of next? First they give all their land to us for firewater, then they complain about genocide or something, and now they’re trying to rip us off? What a bunch of Nazis!
Looking at the edit history of the Wikipedia article, the text in question has been there much longer than this article.
wow thanks I will never ever go to this…… I cant believe that a total of 75 bucks is outrageous then you can take photos is’nt it a tourist attraction and thats the idea, then they want to spend 30 bucks on a photo that they took. Wow thats just insane….and a huge ripoff.
I’d rather go up in the CN Tower (with my OWN camera!) for $18. What a scam this is!
another quibble with this attraction (that I read about…have not visited) is that the skywalk extends over a minor canyon that empties into the Grand Canyon. It is not actually over the Grand Canyon at all, though maybe you can see the Grand canyon off in one direction. caveat emptor.
75 $ does not buy you the right to bring a camera???????? Those dam indians are geting us where it hurts
I was here today and i liked it very much. It was a great experience, alsodriving on that road on the sunset. It’s bumpy, but if you drive slwly and carefully, there’s no problem.
Maybe I enjoyed because I’m not american, but from Italy. But also Italy is full of tourist scams and robberies even worse than the skywalk.
For those travelers interested in visiting the Skywalk, please allow us to clarify some of these points.
1. Construction continues on Diamond Bar rd, but the 14 miles of unpaved road is and easily passable by almost any vehicle. Though heavy rains do periodically wash out the road, these occurrences are rare. Those who choose to avoid Diamond Bar also have the option of taking a shuttle out of Meadview Az for a small fee.
2. Visitors can expect to pay two fees. The Legacy Pass (which is entrance to Grand Canyon West) covers your parking, admission to Grand Canyon West, and a hop-on, hop-off shuttle that takes you around the park. The skywalk has its own reasonable fee.
3. It is true that metal objects are not permitted on the skywalk. This is in an effort to preserve the glass. We want all of our guests to experience a crisp, clean view of the canyon below! If you were interested in purchasing a picture, they are far less expensive than indicated above.
4. The carpets are only installed during periods of rain so that you don’t slip on the glass. When installed, the carpets lay over the beams providing a clear view of the canyon below. In the absence of weather the carpets are removed.
5. The Skywalk only closes when the weather presents a threat to our guests, thunderstorms for example. Closures are rare. Visitors can check on the current status by calling 702-220-8372. We also have a weatherbug notification on our website. In the event of a closure, Visitors that did purchase their skywalk passes in advance will receive a refund.
Please feel free to visit us at http://www.grandcanyonskywalk.com. The truth regarding these and many other topics can be found on our FAQ.
Considering the atrocitites we have committed against Native American Indians over the past centuries, it’s about time they dish a little of it back to us.
Hmm… just went on your skywalk website, and clicked on a random picture from a random date from this August, and a download of this photo was priced at $30… which is actually $1 more than the above quoted price of $29.
We were going to visit this with some friends from Belgium shortly after it opened. They really wanted to see it because the glass used in the construction was made in Belgium. After doing some research, we were able to talk them out of it and went to the National Park instead. Money well saved in my opinion.
What is the point of installing glass walkways and supplying special covers for your shoes if you caannot walk on the glass itself?
Does that not defeat the entire object of the attraction?
My Husband and I visited the Skywalk in May and enjoyed the experience immensly!. For something that cost so much to construct, we found the cost to visit and walk on the Skywalk pretty reasonable. As for the photographs, maybe they could be a little less expensive but if you bought one of those computer dongle things with all your pictures downloaded by the official photographers, you`d really get value for money.
My wife and I just returned from a Las Vegas vacation. We had already planned to go to the Skywalk after seeing something about it on TV and the internet. Man, do I wish we had researched it further. The 120 mile long drive from Las Vegas to the Skywalk attraction was horrible; especially the last 21 miles of it which took over an hour and we were dangerously passed on this road by a Grand Canyon Skywalk bus. Once there, we found out that you cannot take your camera on the Skywalk. I would have thought that during the several conversations I had with these people prior to this, on the telephone, this might have come up. We were explained the $150.00 (for both of us) package and when I began expressing my displeasure were told that we were expected to pay the Indian territory fee regardless of whether we took the tour or not. Fat freaking chance!!! We left and drove 120 miles back to Las Vegas, stopping at the Hoover Dam and for a minimal $11.00 fee had an awesome tour and a great time. The Grand Canyon West Skywalk is a rip off and I hope that so many people come to realize this that the money hungry people running this go out of business.
OK folks, here’s the deal – going on the Skywalk is one of those things you commit to doing, and then Just DO IT! We drove to the site over the dirt road – not all that bad, it’s not the interststate, so you don’t need to be in a hurry. We knew the price before we got there and were pleasantly surprised by a 25% Military Discount. A key to really enjoying the Skywalk itself is to arrive early in the morning – we were there at 9:00 a.m., and there were only about a dozen people on the bus. You CAN walk on the glass, and after the few others went back inside, I spent about 20 minutes of quiet solitude all by myself on the walk. We also enjoyed the native dancers, the houses/shelters on display, and the fantastic views of the Colorado River and Lake Meade. As for the pictures – forget about them. It’s a moment that only you will experience, and a picture wouldn’t do it justice.
Thank you!
This has web eyeopening. We were going to go visit this place, but I’ll be sure to tell everyone I know of this ripoff.
The skywalk sounds like it is intended for international travellers and vegans who do yoga and meditate, not so much for the middle-class American looking for a thrill.
A family of four can walk the skywalk for $300, which is about equal to Disneyland for a day. This attraction should probably be priced similar to the Capilano Suspension Bridge in Vancouver, B.C. Canada, which runs $27 CDN per person. To charge $75 per person and to do so in such a sneaky way (forcing attendees to pay two fees) is a scam, plain and simple. I would gladly pay $30 + tax to walk the skywalk, but I won’t pay $41 just to walk on land that my ancestors didn’t want.
My daughter and I visited the Skywalk in early January and had a wonderful time! Eagle Point and Guano Point were beautiful. We took some fun photos of our own hanging off the cliff. We went to Vegas but visiting the Grand Canyon was the highlight of our trip. Definitely recommend it!
We just returned from Las Vegas yesterday…and part of our trip was to go to the ” Skywalk” at the ” Grand Canyon”..we were so disgusted with the fact of paying for the additional bus fee…the dirt road etc. Then the sign that said that we were not allowed to take pictures of our most beautiful natural marvel…got us really steamed…but the final straw that made us get back in the car was that to buy a cup of coffee… you had to purchase their special mugs to drink out of!!!!!!Wow….then we were done!!!!! Next trip will be to another side of grand canyon where we don’t feel like we are being taken advantage of. We do not recommend this to anyone!!!!