Tribe set to open Grand Canyon Skywalk ($30M tourist overlook to provide 4,000 foot perspective)

The Sierra Times / AP ^ | March 16 | CHRIS KAHN

[A knight without armor]

Hah. Great minds think alike. My reaction is it won't take long for extreme adventurers to bungee or hang glide or where they jump off a ledge and then pull a parachute. They probably won't die or even be injured but still it will be a magnet for these thrill seekers.

Me, I would not need to walk on this platform. I'd be awed so much standing on the ground where the plain tourists go.

[2Jedismom]

There's a place in Minnesota like that...called Palisade Head. My husband grew up near there and he's taken me there on more than one occasion.

It's scares the willies out of me.

But there's some great wild blueberries up there.

[Lil'freeper]

I could see the possibility of panic attacks all around.

LOL --- *all* around.

I might go once just to see. The foreign tourists will eat this up. I just hope they don't try to jump the barriers like they do everywhere else.

[Lil'freeper]

OTOH, there are plenty of places where you can look straight down, and see the solid rock you're standing on.

Yeah, those are called the trails.

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

Yeah, when Rose first showed me the picture of that thing, my actual response was, "Ohh, h*ll no!

[guppas]

"Who cleans the bottom of the glass?"

Let me tell you, if I had been out there you wouldn't want to be cleaning the top of the glass!

[fatnotlazy]

Quite a few of those planes (and some helicopters) crashed into the canyon. I'm no engineer but has something to do with a downdraft. Anyhow, a couple of years after I took the plane ride, one of them crashed. The companies would start these excursions, then quit when there was a crash, then start up again, then quit after another crash, etc. etc. I sure hope they don't do these flights anymore.

[SuziQ]

my actual response was, "Ohh, h*ll no!

LOL!! If it didn't stick out over the Canyon quite so far, I might be persuaded to go out on it. The view is probably just stuning, and like another poster said, would be safer than standing on an edge, in the wind, protected by nothing more than a low railing.

I do like the design of the structure; looks very Anasazi.

[ryan71]

Like when the slug things wrapped that guy up and devoured him?

Sorry.

[Cruising Speed]

It also includes dampeners that minimize the structure's vibration.

What's this...they're going to put water on it? Perhaps they included dampers instead...

[ryan71]

Oh, you mean the shots at the empire state building.

[robertpaulsen]

"I dunno....some of those US Navy carrier pilots are AWFULLY good :-)"

"Ah...sir...ah, if if the pilot's good, see. I mean, if he's really... sharp, he can barrel that baby in so low ... you oughta see it sometime, it's a sight. A BIG plane, like a '52, vroom! Its jet exhaust, fryin' chickens in the barnyard!"

[Stoat]

LMAO

Thanks; brings back great memories!  I think that I even have that in the stoat film collection somewhere.....

I think that all FReepers should take note of the contents of the survival pack that Slim Pickens inventories in the movie and keep at least one in their FReepMobiles at all times   :-)

[Stoat]

I found this list from the film online, and it seems accurate to my fuzzy memory:

“Survival kit contents, check,” says Major Kong in the film Dr. Strangelove, as he pulls items from a metal box. “One .45-caliber automatic; two boxes of ammunition; four days’ concentrated emergency rations; one drug issue containing antibiotics, morphine, vitamin pills, pep pills, sleeping pills, tranquilizer pills; one miniature combination Russian phrase book and Bible; $100 in rubles; $100 in gold; nine packs of chewing gum; one issue of prophylactics; three lipsticks; three pair of nylon stockings. Shoot, a fella could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff.”

[GATOR NAVY]

I didn't realize that. I just remember it being a really thrilling ride. The pilot came in real low so you couldn't see the canyon ahead and then Pow! the bottom just dropped out from under you as you went over the edge and he dropped down inside. I was probably 13 or 14 years old.

[HarmlessLovableFuzzball]

This phony nation within a nation BS has to stop.

Amen!

[DeerfieldObserver]

You Go...

PRICE: Visitors must pay anywhere from $74.95 to $199 to walk on the Skywalk, depending on what other activities they do. (The tribe advertises a $49.95 rate on its Web site, but that just let's you "view" the Skywalk, not walk on it.)

The Hualapai also offer Hummer tours and helicopter trips, a museum of Indian houses and a cowboy town. You also can take a ride to another part of the canyon called Guano Point, where a hiking path will take you over a thin strip of land with cliffs on either side.

[DeerfieldObserver]

At $75-$199 a head, these Indians are still scalping the White Man. :>)

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/03/29/america/NA-FEA-TRV-US-Grand-Canyon-Skywalk.php

[HarmlessLovableFuzzball]

Exactly what is the Indians' contribution here ? The skywalk was built by the "white man" and a lot of the paying tourists will be "white men". So they just get to sit there and scam people because its supposedly on "their" land ?

[HarmlessLovableFuzzball]

When I first read about it, it said the fee was going to be $25/person to walk the skywalk. And now its mysteriously gone up to $100+ ?? I was thinking of taking a drive up there one of these weekends but now I saw f*** the Skywalk !