Grand Canyon West (Review)

The Grand Canyon was on my bucket list as somewhere I really wanted to visit, and I made it a priority to go on my trip to the US. I booked a day trip from Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon and whilst it did include other components, I wanted this review to specifically focus on the Grand Canyon aspect.

The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in Arizona, United States. It is huge and it would take over a week to travel the whole area. Whilst not the deepest in the world, it is known for its visually overwhelming size and its intricate and colorful landscape. Geologically, it is significant because of the thick sequence of ancient rocks that are well preserved and exposed in the walls of the canyon. 

It's divided into multiple areas and I went to the Grand Canyon West. This is census-designated place in Mohave County, Arizona, United States, located on the Hualapai Reservation and therefore technically not in the USA at all. 

On arrival, you have to park in the car park as no private vehicles are allowed onto the site itself. Here there is a small shop, toilets and security system. It is a ticketed only access, where you then queue for the shuttle buses. The shuttle buses take you from the car part to the first site (Eagle Point), then to the second site (Guano Point) and back to the car park. It's a circle tour and whilst buses are every 15 minutes, there are long queues for each of them, in my experience taking 30 minutes each time to wait whilst boarding which is frustrating and also quite hard when it's so hot. 
The first stop was Eagle Point. Here, is the famous Skywalk. This world-famous “floating” glass bridge is a 40-foot wide, horseshoe-shaped glass bridge extending 70 feet out over the rim of the Grand Canyon. The views are breath-taking and defintely incredible, however it was a truly awful experience and had I not have pre-booked a ticket, I absolutely would not have gone because it's not worth it. I queued for nearly two hours to get inside. 

Once inside, you  had to store all your belongings as you can't take anything out with you, including cameras and phones, and put on some shoe covers so the glass doesn't get scratched. Groups are then allocated individual photographers who take pictures all over the bridge but really ruining the opportunity for individuals to take in the views. I spent less than 5 minutes out there because there is only so much you can look at, whilst getting told off my photographers for getting in their way. Honestly, it was such a waste of money and really impacted and ruined my whole day as I then had to run around to see the rest of the sites. 
I didn't get to stay to experience it for long, but the reservation tried to also be quite educational. There was information inside at the Skywalk, plus a Native American village to walk around. Here there was a hut and a sweat lodge you could go inside and it was really interesting to see the perspective. 
Of course, I then had to take in the views as well and it was beautiful. This area is specially named after one of the rock formations that supposedly looks like a bird with outstretched wings, hence an eagle. There are also lots of eagles that fly overhead. 

I bought a hot meal from the takeaway van out of compulsion because it was included in my ticket, and whilst the food was yummy, I couldn't really enjoy it because I was rushing everywhere with very little time. I ate whilst waiting in the queue for the next shuttle bus to get to the next location, Guano Point. This one is named after the cave of guano (bat poo) that was found at the edge. It was mined for a short time before a plane flew into the tram that allowed for the mining, destroying it. With no money to repair, remnants of a historic tram still stand today as a monument. 
This point I actually think is so beautiful. You can see clear views of the Colorado River from one end to the other and the colours are surreal. There's so many different paths and places to explore, I only managed to do a few of the routes because of the time constraints I had. They also had a small market selling tribal goods here, which was also interesting. 
Overall, I do think I managed to enjoy the Grand Canyon and it was what I wanted to get out of it, it was just a shame that my visit was ruined by an awful experience of the Skywalk. I would never recommend doing the Skywalk to anyone. It genuinely impacted my entire day. 

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