Peggy reports back - The skywalk
On Monday, Jay and Elizabeth - Dean's World readers - pledged $125 for Brian and I to make the trip back out to the Grand Canyon Skywalk. We had gone the day after Thanksgiving and reported back about our experiences there. At the time we did not pay the exorbitant prices to take the bus to the area where the skywalk would be built (or to be able to get close to the Grand Canyon and see it without fencing, for that matter).

Due to the reading public's thirst for knowledge, this time we did.

Brian Tiemann has an extremely well written article about the state of things at Grand Canyon West, and as you'll see in the photos to come, he hit the nail right on the head.


We stopped at the Welcome Center this time around. It's still being built, but the brochure says that you'll be able to park there and take the bus over the dirt road to the Canyon - "For a small fee". Brian got out of the car, and a man wearing a blue NAPA auto parts hat came out of the grey building that is being built. After some conversing the man became willing to give a few details on the construction (at first he seemed suspicious of Brian's seeking of information about the builder, wanting to know why he wanted to contact them), and upon being asked if the the building will be operational as soon as construction is complete, the man looked a bit confused. "Huh? This is just the living quarters - the museum will be over there." Through the doorway he was standing in front of could be seen the small white vent hood of a standard-sized home kitchen stove (it was obviously not a piece of commercial equipment), and homey-looking cabinetry. Brian looked over to see where the man was indicating, and somewhat confused asked, "The trailer?" "Yeah," he replied. The trailer indicated had white-tarp stretched down along both sides and rattled in the wind, making it appear to be the center piece of a triple-wide trailer (two other trailer pieces were on the property, although parked on the other side of the building).


I had come out here to prove that the skywalk was NOT a scam. I did so for the purpose of not finding every tiny little ponderance overly suspicious ("AHA! The candy bar wrapper on the ground is a kind not sold in the gift shop!", Brian jestingly noted). Yet here I was, 21 miles from a planned $30 million dollar landmark and surely a similarly expensive resort, and they were building attractive (and seemingly marketable) "living quarters" - while the Welcome Center proper was being relegated to a mobile home? This didn't sit right with me at all. I mean, everything just seems so temporary. This further confirmed observations and feelings we had on our last trip.


The road was in the same condition as on our previous trip, with the exception of it having far more traffic than before. Hummers and Jeeps filled with tourists who had paid to ride in them out to the Canyon passed us quite frequently. They were more or less all operated by companies based out of Las Vegas, and white SUVs making their way back and forth bore the Pink Jeep seal (famous for it's Pink Jeep tours of Sedona Arizona).








On the way to the Canyon, there is this ranch. We thought this was the ranch that they take you to on the more expensive packages for horseback rides and for the buffet, which are included in the evermore pricey packages. We later learned that this ranch is completely independently owned and operated (and has been for well over 100 years), and has nothing to do with any of the packages offered.

The Grand Canyon West ranch is owned by a man out of Vegas who also owns some Helicopter tour businesses. You can ride a helicopter from Vegas to this ranch, and stay the night in either a little ranch house, or a tipi. We also learned that this man was the reason that the road wasn't paved, as he owns a section of the property that the road is on. So we stopped in there on our way home for a statement. It seems the official statement is that the owner doesn't want the road paved because he wants to maintain the old west feel of the area. I had a hard time not laughing out loud at this, because even though there are horses, tipis, and a cowboy cookout, this place didn't seem very "old west" to me - it seemed more like a Hollywood set than anything else. There must be more to this story - I'll let you know when I get it. Further investigation is needed, you might say.


Shortly before we reached the GCW airport and gift shop, we saw a dirt road off to the left and decided to see what interesting things it might lead to. Just down the road it was marked "Employees Only", a sign which we did not see (somehow just overlooked it entirely, if you know what I mean - go figure!), and we figured this was where we might find some construction equipment, or maybe a quarry, and so we eased on down the road. Brian began humming a tune from The Wiz, but I continued unabated.










Instead, we found the employee housing area. Not deluxe accommodations, to be sure. There was a large square building of undetermined function, which featured a few broken windows (and none of the wires on the outside of the building were connected to anything - they just hanged loosely in the air). There was also a place that appeared to be where they did maintenance on their vehicles and buses.










We never found our quarry - just a pile of gravel, a mixer truck, and a water truck. It seemed to us to be road-paving related equipment, and little else. There were also what appeared to be empty septic tanks laying around, and two quite large dark-colored tanks of unknown function. With nothing else to see we made our way back onto the main road and continued to the airport.








We chatted with a man behind the counter where we were to purchase our tickets for the bus, and he was very friendly until we asked too many questions, and then he rather quickly clammed up. He was friendly and helpful to the people before us (a conversation we listened in on) for the entirety of their Q&A session, which was rather short. He told us that they were having trouble getting the right steel for the project, and this was what had held up construction. What kind of steel did they need. "A certain kind that's strong enough and will flex right." I asked, "What kind of company takes on a construction project like this?" and he grinned, adding "A scary one". He then showed me on the big picture on the wall, where it said the company had done other projects and such, and I pointed out that it never gives their name. He joked about how the janitors were wondering how they'd ever clean the underside of this skywalk when it's built, and I asked again about the builder, but he never answered. Brian interjected a few moments later asking if there might be any information on the builder, but it seemed a bit of deafness had set in.

Then another couple approached the counter to purchase their tickets, and we waited while he helped them, and he told them all about the tour, and how they'd get a certificate showing they had been there when they got back. We then stepped up to purchase our tickets, and he never said another word to us. It felt as though we had asked just one too many questions and sought too much in-detail information about the builders and project. I wondered if maybe we were expected to be there that day. Indeed, it would be a feeling that we would have repeatedly - as if they were suspicious, or even on their guard for people who asked too many questions, or sought certain kinds of information.

We boarded the next bus that came, and it took us out to Eagle point. It is so named for a natural "Eagle" formation in the rocks in the Canyon. The bus driver told us that this was just a shuttle bus, and that there would be one every 15 minutes, so we could stay at each point as long as we wished.



When we got off the bus, we were guided over to a small circular area where a man was drumming, and once we were all gathered around, he sung us a song in Native American tongue.








At this point 'Chief Don' took over and led us on a tour of the Indian Village. I recognized him as the man in the headdress, t-shirt, and tennis shoes that I had seen over the Thanksgiving weekend - he was dressed a little better this time.









There was a walkway that went in a semi-circle through some tipis, and sweat houses. At each building, Chief Don stopped and told a little story about Native American life, and he spoke some in the Native tongue, but all I could think of were the little shacks they had them housed in now. There was quite a bit of construction activity in the Indian Village, and it looked like they were building some more Indian buildings for it.



We made our way through the Village in 5-10 minutes, and then were led over to the Canyon wall. This is pretty close to the view that you'll get when and if the skywalk is finished. Chief Don never mentioned the skywalk, but we were right next to it at this point, so I asked him about it. He said that they were behind schedule and didn't expect it to open until the middle of the next year.

We asked what the hold up was and he said they were having some sort of trouble with getting the foundation set, and when I asked what sort of problem, he shrugged and said he didn't know, though he did say that the glass work was finished. Chief Don said he had spoken with an engineer on site at some point, and that that's where he got his information.

I asked if it would be possible for us to go inside the barricades and see what they were doing, and he said that we could see it from right here, and pointed at a large pile of big square nuts that were sitting in between the site's trailer and a generator.








This orange tractor/bulldozer was the only piece of equipment there that could qualify as construction equipment. There was no construction activity at the site at all, but there was someone moving around inside the trailer. The group of people we were with dispersed, and most of them went to the shuttle bus that was arriving. We went and walked around the barricades to get a better look at the site, and Chief Don yelled at us - Our bus was here, and we had to go.




He clearly was uneasy with us poking around the site - possibly because I had asked if I could go inside the barricades. We were told that we could stay as long as we liked and catch any shuttle, so why was he yelling out to us to board the shuttle? So I ran over to the bus, which Chief Don was holding for us, and said, "I thought we could stay?" and the driver said we could stay as long as we liked, so we got back off the shuttle and stayed awhile.





The site had canyon wall on two sides - to the East, and to the North. The remaining two sides had short barricades around them. The trailer was running East and West, and from the point where it ended at the canyon wall there were barricades to block entry (the last barricade actually hanged partly over the canyon). There were deep crevices in the ground on the outside of those barricades, so we couldn't get over there. West of the trailer there was a tractor, a couple of trucks, and a generator. North of those, there was a big pile of rock and dirt, and some sort of gazebo or cage that didn't appear that it belonged there at all.

At the edge of the canyon, on the East side, there was some survey equipment.

There were two holes in the ground that had large bolts of varying lengths sticking out of them, along with some re-bar. I wasn't able to get close enough to see how deep the holes were, and I don't know if the big pile of dirt and rocks was from those holes or the construction on the Indian Village, but each hole had a short pile of dirt next to it.









Here's a zoomed-in picture of the hole.










The two holes are approximately 20 feet apart, and the one that is close to the edge is on the Northern side of the site. Chief Don told us that there were four holes, but these were the only two that we could see. If there are indeed four holes, or if there will be four holes, then it would appear that the skywalk will hang out on the North-side of the site, and these two holes will be for one side of the walk. It doesn't really make sense that it will go out into the East site (the main side of the canyon), as that far hole sits so close to the Northern edge, and the two holes don't appear to be far enough apart for what they are building. If I'm correct, then this isn't going to be like it is implied it is going to be like in the drawings. It will hang off the canyon wall, but it will be in a cut-out area of the canyon wall, and not out over the Colorado river. In other words, one side of the walk will be parallel to the canyon wall.


Sitting near the edge of the East side of the site, there was a pile of cinder blocks, and several hollow metal objects that appeared to have bolts protruding from them on three sides. I can't imagine what these are for.

I have the name of the construction company now, and once Dean and I get together about who will call them, I hope to have some answers about when this thing is expected to be complete, why they aren't working on it right now, which direction it will hang off the canyon from, and what the hold up is. Look for another update soon!