Grand Canyon West, Arizona, United States
The direct route from Las Vegas to Flagstaff takes less than
four hours, but we made two significant stops along the way at Hoover Dam and
Grand Canyon West. There are bigger and taller dams in both the U.S. and the
world, but at the time it was built in the 1930s the Hoover Dam was considered
a major engineering marvel. It remains impressive today. Back in 1992 on one of
my first road trips to the Southwest, my friend Nina and I stopped at the dam
and took the power station tour into its bowels. A third of a century ago, traffic
between Las Vegas and Arizona passed directly over the dam. Since then that
route became very congested and new bridge was constructed over the canyon just
below the dam and opened in 2010. In 2021 I stopped at the dam, walked across,
and saw all the changes that took place in the area since 1993 but did not take
the tour. This time Rodrigo and I took the tour, a much more popular attraction,
now with a glassy visitor center, than it was back then. The tour, though,
remains about the same as I remember from way back when. It is still possible
to walk and drive across the Hoover Dam, but it is no longer open to through
traffic. If you drive across from the Nevada side, you have to return and take
the bridge if you want to go to Arizona.
Our next stop was one of the few things on this road trip
that was new to me. Over the years I had heard of a glass-bottomed pedestrian
walkway over the Grand Canyon constructed on one of the two Indian reservations
that include part of the canyon.
I should note that the Grand Canyon covers a more
extensive area than what is included in Grand Canyon National Park, with parts
of the canyon west of the park managed by BLM (Bureau of Land Management) and
the Hualapai and Havasupai reservations. Honestly, I never thought much about
going to the Skywalk on my southwestern trips because I could not imagine the
views from it improving significantly on what you can see in the national park.
On the other hand, the Skywalk was firmly on Rodrigo’s bucket list of expensive
destinations and activities.
About half way between Hoover Dam and Kingman, a decent
paved road heads off to the north for about 50 miles to the rim of the canyon
at its far western side. It can be done as a day trip from Las Vegas, unlike
the national park, which is too far away to see in a day. It’s popularity as a
day trip from Las Vegas is demonstrated by the large number of tour buses we
passed going in the opposite direction in the afternoon and by the huge parking
lot at the visitor center.
It is there that you get your tickets, an exorbitant $82 per
person, which enables you to take a shuttle bus to two overlooks and walk out
onto the Skywalk at one of them. The Skywalk itself is like a big horseshoe of
metal with a glass bottom. You might think you could get some wicked good
pictures, but photos are not permitted. You have to leave your cameras and cell
phones and other personal items in a locker before you go out onto the Skywalk.
Of course, there are Native American photographers eager to take professional
pictures of you on the Skywalk for a mere $40 extra. I was at least able to
take some pictures of Rodrigo on the Skywalk from the distance with my zoom
lens. I have to admit to finding it to
be a bit of a rip off and a tourist trap compared to the experience in the national
park.
The second stop was at an overlook called Guano Point with
nearly 360* unobstructed views of the western part of the canyon. For me it was
rather interesting to see another part of the canyon, one quite distant from
either the north or south rims where I have been. It was then more than a three
hour drive to Flagstaff and well after dark by the time we arrived at our motel
along famous Route 66.
2025-05-22