West Rim…as promised…

…but boy was I disappointed!  A gorgeous day for a drive with the convertible top down.  That turned out to be the hilite.

Yes, you have to drive about 10 miles on a bone-jarring, wash-board gravel road, but so what!…I was going to be walking on a giant see-through SkyWalk, projecting me out over the rim of the Grand Canyon 4,000 feet up!

As soon as I arrived, the disappointments began:

1) The place has a military-camp feeling…lots of tight security
2) You feel “handled” from the moment you step onto the site.
3)  You also feel like your pocketbook is being assailed from the get-go.
4)  By-pass all the Sight-seeing plane and helicopter booths if you can find your way past them.
5)  To be able to walk the SkyWalk, it costs $75
6)  It’s not till you’re riding the bus TO the SkyWalk that they explain YOU CANNOT TAKE YOUR CAMERA ONTO THE SKYWALK!!!
7) WHAT!!!???
8]  Pass through a metal detector before walking the SkyWalk.  You get a locker to hold your stuff. (‘used to be a dollar, now free — wow!…thanks!)
9)  Watch with frustration the West Rim Photographers with THEIR cameras on the SkyWalk sell you their photo packages of you.
10)  Ice Cream Cones $2.25 (well, it is a remote location)
11)  The ultimate disappointment: The SkyWalk doesn’t even extend over the Colorado River canyon itself…you’re extended out over a tributary canyon.

Total time on-site:  2-hours.  Total time on the SkyWalk: 5  minutes.  I coulda stayed longer, but I was so steamed by then, I didn’t want to.

Here’s a link to a short video I put together of shots I took while I was there.  My suggestion:  go to the South Rim or the North Rim.  Both are much more beautiful, less expensive, and more accessible.

VIDEO

CourVO