Worth it: Skywalk @ Grand Canyon West? (Kingman: credit, hotel, trip)

[foma]

Anybody actually been to the Skywalk at Grand Canyon West? If you have, is it worth it? It's like $50 to get on the reservation and then another $25 for the Skywalk ... that's pretty steep (no pun intended)!

My Mom is coming to visit and she REALLY wants to go but I don't like heights so any excuse I can give her to keep her from wanting to go I will appreciate! If it is worth the money though, I guess I'll just have to get over the fact that I could plummet to my death walking on that thing.

[AzDreamer]

I have been to the canyon several times but would never pay $75 for the skywalk. I would rather take the time to hike down a mile or two, it's a different world inside the canyon.

[Steve-o]

I agree, take the hike down. That price theyre charging to walk the thing is outrageous!!! Just make sure to take the hike down anytime but summer. Its unbelievably hot down in there!!!

[foma]

I see your point! My Mom is an old lady and doesn't like the heat so unfortunately, hiking is out of the question. Plus, she's been to the Canyon. The Skywalk is new so naturally, she wants to see it. I'm just worried we're going to pay all that money and be disappointed!

[Steve-o]

From what Ive read, its 3K feet above the Colorado? If so, thats just crazy. I can hardly handle the Sears Tower! LOL I dont think Id have it in me to walk out on that thing. NO WAY! LOL

[brittZ]

Originally Posted by foma

I see your point! My Mom is an old lady and doesn't like the heat so unfortunately, hiking is out of the question. Plus, she's been to the Canyon. The Skywalk is new so naturally, she wants to see it. I'm just worried we're going to pay all that money and be disappointed!

While I do not mean to trivialize the financial concern, I would put this out there. How much money gets wasted on things that really do not give any benefit to our lives. Is $75 bucks or $150 worth it to give your mom an opportunity to see and experience something she may never get again. I personally would make a temporary shift in my finances to make it happen. Even if it turned out to suck, think of the quality time spent with mom on a road trip especiallly if you have kids that would get to spend the time with her. Then again a long road trip with mom and the kids might make some of us jump off the skywalk when we finally made it there

[foma]

Geez Brittz, thanks for that guilt trip!

I would do anything for my Mom. It's the height I'm against! Luckily I'm not completely phobic but dang, that's a long waaaaaaays down! The money wasn't enough to disinterest her - she already made that clear to me - so my only hope was for someone to say that it sucked. Me and my pipe dream ...

Maybe someone can tell me how much fun it was so I can stop obsessing over my death!

[brittZ]

You know they say its never the ride down that kills just the landing, so have fun on the way down. Besides you are only standing on a big piece of glass 3,000 feet over the surface of the Earth - no biggie right. Actually I just found out my grandmother and she said that it was a great time and really enjoyed it. I know what you mean though, I climbed a ladder into an attic this past weekend and got scared to come down because I was to high up. I hate heights, but Im getting over it - one fall at a time

[Ponderosa]

When my relatives come to town, I just tell them the Grand Canyon is overrated and we skip it.

[motormaker]

A post I copied from another forum that might do some good here...

We wanted to see the new "thing" at the Grand Canyon, so we went this weekend. It is advertised as $25.00 to go out on the skywalk and the pictures show a beautiful building next to the walkway. Well; they are not quite "HONEST." It is $25.00 to go on the skywalk, but it is $50.00 to be on the reservation. You find this out after what they say is a 1-hour trip down a 57-mile dirt road. Wrong! This dirt road is 57 mile all right; the fastest you can go is 25 mph; you do the math!!! So, after this long drive you get the good news it is $75.00 a person!!! Chris said maybe we should forget it; I said after that road we are not coming back so get the damn credit card out. Then you get on their bus for a 10 min ride to the "walkway"; built in one of the ugliest places on the whole Grand Canyon; not a tree to be seen and the water is gray below! Their building is not started, so you have a trailer to go into to go through a metal detector and leave your camera and purse in the trailer. The walkway glass was cracked which lead me to believe they may have a few engineering glitches and I got my a** off the thing right away after seeing that! Believe me it is not as big or long as it looks on TV. They do give you a buffet lunch, with your ticket, at Guano (means ****) Point. The Indians used to go over the cliff here to pick up bird droppings to use for Makeup (war paint). You get to sit in one of the windiest places on earth to eat your chicken or ribs covered with blowing dirt. We passed on the lunch. There are buses leaving every 10-15 min with 52 people on board at $75.00 per person $3,900.00 per bus from 8:00 am until 6:30 pm. That's $156,000.00 per day! I guess they are making a lot of money. They are flying people in from Vegas and Laughlin to go see this thing! I guess the Indians are smart; but not so honest about all the details of the activity. We had to stop and change a tire for a young girl who took her grandparents out there. They had the right kind of car and good tires; but the road is terrible, they blew out the side wall of the tire. They must have hit the side of the road and a big rock. They did not know where the spare tire was and were completely helpless. The tow truck would have come out there but it would have been 2.5 hours and $400.00! The girl was very scared and grateful we stopped to help. Some guys stopped to ask if this was the right way to the Skywalk. Grandpa yelled out, "go back it is not worth it!!" One last detail, the hotel the Indians run to accommodate this adventure looks great online, but the sign at check in says "SINCE THE TRAINS COME BY EVERY 10 -15 MINS PLEASE ASK FOR THE FREE EAR PLUGS". We immediately canceled our reservations and made it to Kingman, AZ for the night. We got up at 6am and got the hell out of Arizona!