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

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

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Tribe set to open Grand Canyon Skywalk
Posted: Tuesday March 20,2007 - 12:14:55 am

By CHRIS KAHN, Associated Press Writer 49 minutes ago

HUALAPAI INDIAN RESERVATION, Ariz. - Visitors who have marveled at the Grand Canyon's vistas will now have a dizzying new option: a glass-bottom observation deck allowing them to gaze into the chasm beneath their feet.

The Skywalk, which will be unveiled Tuesday, is being touted as an engineering marvel. The glass-and-steel horseshoe extends 70 feet beyond the canyon's edge with no visible supports above or below.

For $25 plus other fees, people will be able to see 4,000 feet straight down to the canyon floor, a vantage point more than twice as high as the world's tallest buildings.

Hualapai Indians, who live near the rim about 90 miles west of the national park, allowed a Las Vegas developer to build the $30 million Skywalk in hopes of creating a unique attraction on their side of the canyon.

Tribal leaders are betting that people will flock here, braving the rugged terrain — including a twisty ride through unpaved roads — to walk its transparent surface. The Skywalk, they hope, will become the centerpiece of a budding tourism industry that includes helicopter tours, river rafting, a cowboy town and a museum of Indian replica homes.

It's scheduled to open to the public on March 28.

The Skywalk has sparked debate on and off the reservation. Many Hualapai (pronounced WALL-uh-pie) worry about disturbing nearby burial sites, and environmentalists have blamed the tribe for transforming the majestic canyon into a tourist trap.

Hualapai leaders say they weighed those concerns for years before agreeing to build the Skywalk. With a third of the tribe's 2,200 members living in poverty, the tribal government decided it needs the tourism dollars.

"When we have so much poverty and so much unemployment, we have to do something," said Sheri Yellowhawk, a former tribal councilwoman overseeing the project. "It sounded like a good idea."

Las Vegas businessman David Jin fronted the money to build the Skywalk. Yellowhawk said Jin will give it to the Hualapai in exchange for a cut of the profits.

Construction crews spent two years building the Skywalk. They drilled steel anchors 46 feet into the limestone rim to hold the deck in place. Earlier this month, they welded the Skywalk to the anchors after pushing it past the edge using four tractor trailers and an elaborate system of pulleys.

Architect Mark Johnson said the Skywalk will support the weight of a few hundred people and withstand canyon winds of 100 mph. The observation deck has been embedded with shock absorbers to keep it from wobbling like a diving board as people walk on it.

Hualapai leaders were to be the first to set foot on the Skywalk on Tuesday. They've hired former astronauts Buzz Aldrin and John Herrington to join them. The astronauts were expected to help christen the deck during a brief ceremony.

Herrington was chosen in part because he's a registered Chickasaw Indian. Aldrin said he agreed to attend after reading about the project. And, as the Apollo 11 astronaut famous for walking on the moon, Aldrin said he has no fear of heights.

[R. Scott]

With my acrophobia, no way - no how.

[Gamecock]

You can say that again.

[fish hawk]

Are you upset at Indians because they can do it and you can't? You should be upset at the Sierra club, not the Indians. As far as the Nation within a Nation goes, get over it, you can't do a damn thing about that but whine.

[Erasmus]

Why would someone pay $25 to jump off it when one can just jump off of the canyon lip almost anywhere else for a lot less?

If you start from a point seventy feet out from the edge, you get a much longer ride before splatting on the canyon wall.

Of course, the extra ride comes at about ten bucks a second.

< }B^)

[Erasmus]

This office chair has no buttons on it anymore.

Check your stool for them.

SLAP! SLAP! SLAP!

[CT-Freeper]

The "edge effect" is the perfect description for that feeling! I don't feel so alone after reading this thread.

I personally LOVE having that "edge effect" hit me. Adrenaline rushes are the best feeling in the world. It makes me feel all tingly all over my insides.

[Gorzaloon]

Are you upset at Indians because they can do it and you can't?

I don't know about that poster, but damn right I can't.

I can't watch a video of Blackfoot and Mohawk skywalkers doing ironwork a hundred floors up, and have to look away while sitting in a comfy chair!

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

The Eiffel Tower elevators are exposed to an outside view as well. My daughter almost lost it on the way up.

[GATOR NAVY]

Many years ago, I took one of those plane rides into the canyon...

We did that too in the mid-70s. What was more dangerous than usual about it?

[proud American in Canada]

I'm scared of heights and my stomach is turning just reading about it.

You couldn't pay me enough to get on that thing!

[HiJinx]

Looks like BASE jumpers have something new to play with!

In that case, I'm sure that the Arizona State Police (or Tribal Police) will be delighted to build a stylish police station down in the bottom of the Canyon below the Skywalk, perhaps incorporating a giant funnel to catch the jumpers and feed them directly into the holding cells :-)

Interesting thought. But think about it. Most BASE jumpers have a way to escape after landing. In the Grand Canyon, unless you have a mule or helicopter already waiting at the bottom - you have no way out. And God help you if you land in the Colorado River (wearing a 'chute) instead of on one of its narrow beaches. Then, you'll just eventually end up stuck in the grates at Boulder Dam.

[Billthedrill]

I can see how they'd make some serious money here. I'd pay 'em $25 to go out there and another hunnert to send somebody out to pry my fingers from the railing with a crowbar and carry my gibbering carcass back to solid ground.

[proud American in Canada]

I'm sitting here at my desk reeling, just from looking at the pictures!

It's almost like you feel like if you get close to the edge, you can't stop yourself from throwing yourself off.

I'm getting sick just talking about it, LOL!

[proud American in Canada]

I love to fly but watching a movie with people hanging from a building makes me sweat

When we rented King Kong, during certain points in the movie I started pacing the floor, breathing fast. I just couldn't watch it.

[proud American in Canada]

LOL!

[Corin Stormhands]

Since I had to escorted out of the St. Louis Arch, which is ~enclosed~, I think I'll pass on this one.

[montag813]

Non-Indians could never have built this monstrosity.

Why is it a "monstrosity"? I think they did an excellent job of fitting it into the landscape. I can't wait to go on it.

[SuziQ]

Yeah, I could see the possibility of panic attacks all around.

[2Jedismom]

LOL! No kidding. I saw this earlier today and it doesn't appeal to me at ALL.

[ArrogantBustard]

Just offering a comparison ... this glass overlook thingy lets you look straight down, and see rock ... 4000' below. BUT, you're surrounded by glass. Unless the structure collapses, you can't fall off.

OTOH, there are plenty of places where you can look straight down, and see the solid rock you're standing on. BUT you're just a few feet from a precipice, on at least two sides, and there's no railing, no wall, nothing but a whole lot of wind.

I'm going to have to check out the glass thing ... just to see which is more gut-dropping.