I'll be the first to admit that I am a big chicken. I love to travel and experience new things, but some things are just too much for me. Once, my husband booked a tour in a little tiny airplane to a remote river in Alaska for the purpose of getting in that river with bears, and I got so nervous just thinking about the whole idea of being in the same river with hungry bears that I was physically ill. Of course, as soon as he took off in his little tiny airplane, I was fine. So it came as a surprise to some who know me that on our recent trip to Las Vegas, we went to the Grand Canyon Skywalk in Arizona. And walked on it!
The Skywalk is an engineering marvel--a horseshoe-shaped bridge, owned and operated by the Hualapai Tribe, that juts 70 feet out over the Grand Canyon, and 4,000 feet above the canyon floor. The frame is made of steel, but the entire surface of the bridge is GLASS. See-through glass. We read all kinds of information about that glass, about how strong it was and how thick it was and how it could support 800 people per piece. We liked the sound of that, so we booked two $70 tickets to the Skywalk and flew to Las Vegas.We drove about 2 1/2 hours out of Vegas to get to Grand Canyon West, parked in the Hualapai parking lot and took their bus from the parking lot to the Skywalk itself. On the drive, my husband admitted to me that he and his daughter had already had a conversation about what excuse I would give to get out of walking on the Skywalk. What she didn't know was that the whole thing was my idea. I thought it would be the easiest way of all to experience the Grand Canyon.
And I was right. After we stored all of our belongings in lockers (no cameras, purses, etc., allowed, or they might fall and scratch the glass), and slipped our soft little cloth booties over our shoes, we stepped out on the glass bridge and over the Grand Canyon itself. At first, we stepped very gingerly on the clear middle part (most people were staying on the sides where the glass was opaque and there was a handrail). But after our friendly Skywalk photographer started having us pose for photos (aha, another reason cameras were not allowed, we realized), we started enjoying ourselves, even lying on our stomachs on the glass and looking straight down into the canyon.
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| Taking our first steps on the glass |
We stayed out on the Skywalk for thirty minutes or so, joking about outlasting Chevy Chase's one-minute Grand Canyon "experience" in Vacation. The view was breathtaking and the experience of being suspended in mid-air on clear glass was unlike anything else we had ever done. We were so pleased with ourselves, we almost felt like we were cheating. You see, the other Grand Canyon experience alternatives were far worse. Riding mules for two days? Backpacking down and up sheer rock walls? Flying in a noisy helicopter? No, thanks. No, the Skywalk was definitely the best way to experience the Grand Canyon for a candy-ass such as myself!
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| Looking through the glass at the canyon floor |
