Video:
Stephen Bleach walks the skywalk
If you’ve ever seen a Road Runner cartoon, you’ll know that in every episode,
there is a sequence where Wile E Coyote runs off a cliff and just keeps on
running — until he looks down. Seeing nothing but thin air under his feet,
he promptly plummets to the earth far below.
Well, now I know exactly how Wile E Coyote felt, but without the unfortunate
gravitational consequences. Last week, I strolled onto the Skywalk, a
glass-floored, horseshoe-shaped walkway that juts out over the precipitous
rim of the Grand Canyon, deep in Road Runner country. Like a scene from a
vertigo-sufferer’s darkest nightmare, it suspends you in midair 4,000ft up,
with nothing but 4in of clear glass between you and the distant, jagged
rocks of the valley floor. If you fell from here, you’d have quite a while
to ponder the transience of life before you proved it.
Despite the perilous position, it is, the engineers claim, as safe as houses.
At a cost of more than £15m, the walkway has been built to exacting standards,
its 6ft deep girder beams anchored in place by 108 steel supports driven
40ft into the rock. The tempered glass beneath my feet was made in five
layers for extra strength. They reckon it could support 822 people with
ease, considerably more than the 120 who’ll be allowed on at any one time.
I knew all that as I climbed the steps to the walkway, but knowing something
in your head and knowing it in your heart are two different things,
especially when your stomach is starting to turn somersaults. The first
steps out into the void were electrifying, the ground melting away beneath
my feet, to be replaced by a tumbling vista of hundreds of stunning strata.
It’s a sheer, unnatural high.
The sides are glass, too, reaching up to about shoulder height, though the top
is open to the elements. Looking for the best viewpoint, I made for the
furthest reach of the walkway, in the hope of grabbing a little quiet time
to contemplate the mystery and majesty of the ancient rocks spread at my
feet. And I was starting to do just that when I made an interesting
discovery. If you’re one of those vertigo-sufferers I referred to earlier,
it might be worth skipping this bit, because, despite assertions to the
contrary from its managers, the Skywalk wobbles.
It’s nothing pronounced, nothing dangerous, just a slight tremor from the wind
and the tread of your fellow visitors’ feet, but it was enough to bring a
small whine of panic from a couple of my fellow musers as we stood there,
contemplating the fact that terra firma was 70ft away. As Norman Foster
found out to his cost, wobbly structures are not something the public
generally relishes, but it’s remarkable how quickly you get used to the
slight movement — and in any case, for the thrill-seekers who are likely to
be drawn to the Skywalk, it can only enhance an already heart-in-mouth
experience. Within minutes, the drama of the setting overcame any fears, and
I ended up loving it. I was soon enthusiastically jumping up and down to see
what this baby could take.
But any impact I could make was drowned out by the pounding feet of the mob of
journalists coming up behind me. The opening event was a media scrum, and,
though I’d sneakily got onto the walk before the mob, I was soon surrounded
by a posse of television news crews, each trying to create the illusion of
seclusion by shouting at their rivals to get out of shot. It didn’t help
that a nasty Arizona dust storm had blown up, sandblasting the lot of us.
The presenters’ eyes were red and watering, their blinding white grins
dulled by a coating of fine desert grit as, one after another, they
delivered the obvious catch phrase of the day — “It’s like walking on air.”
WHEN THEY’RE first allowed access on Wednesday, the general public will
probably be a lot more polite and considerate than journalists ever are, but
getting space to contemplate the experience is still going to be an issue.
Perhaps my expectations were too high, but the structure itself looked
surprisingly small close up. The walkway totals 140ft, so even if you’re not
dodging irate cameramen, it might not be the most serene experience with a
full load of 120 people on board.
In fact, amid all the understandably excited media coverage such a radical
structure has provoked, one thing hasn’t come in for much consideration:
what will it actually be like for visitors? Will it be worth the time and
money to have a stroll on Skywalk yourself?
You’ll need a surprising amount of both. Skywalk isn’t at what most of us
think of as the “proper” Grand Canyon: the South Rim, where 90% of visitors
end up. It’s at a Native American reservation called Grand Canyon West, a
narrower part of the chasm more than 100 miles away. While the view is
undeniably impressive, you don’t get that phenomenal vista of buttes, mesas
and spires here. There isn’t much accommodation, either, so most Skywalkers
are expected to visit on a day trip from Las Vegas, a good 2½hour drive
away, some of it over dirt roads. Five hours is a long round trip for a
short walk.
Once at the reservation, you’re not allowed to drive around yourself, but have
to take a coach package to see the various lookouts (including Skywalk’s
Eagle Point eyrie) and a reconstructed Indian village. The cheapest is
£26pp, and you’ll pay an extra £13pp to walk the Skywalk.
So, is it worth it? If you want to share in that Wile E Coyote feeling, the
answer has to be yes: there’s nowhere else on earth where you can walk
straight off a cliff and not end up spread very thinly over a very wide
area. If, though, the view and the sense of space are all you need, here’s a
tip: head instead for the South Rim and make for Shoshone Point, a high,
often deserted promontory where the rock juts out into the void, leaving you
surrounded by thin air on three sides. The view’s better, the price is
lower, the atmosphere’s more tranquil and contemplative — and, on top of all
that, it doesn’t wobble.
Walk the walk: access to the canyon rim and entry to the Skywalk starts
at £39pp at Grand Canyon West (www.destinationgrandcanyon.com).
Tours by coach (from £75) and helicopter (from £190pp) are also available;
see website for details.
Getting there: the all-business-class airline Maxjet (www.maxjet.com)
flies to Las Vegas direct from Stansted, with return fares from £800. Or try
Virgin Atlantic (www.virgin-atlantic.com).
Where to stay: in Las Vegas, the midrange, Egyptian-themed Luxor (00
1-702 262 4000, www.luxor.com)
has doubles from £35, while the trendy THEhotel at Mandalay Bay (702 632
7777, www.mandalaybay.com)
has doubles from £86.
Tour operators: Bon Voyage (0800 316 0194, www.bon-voyage.co.uk)
has a range of fly-drive holidays to the Grand Canyon, flying from London or
Manchester to Las Vegas or Phoenix. To explore the area properly, including
the South Rim, Grand Canyon West and Monument Valley, a 10-day package is
about right. Prices start at £599, including flights and car hire;
accommodation can be arranged on request. Or try Premier (0870 889 0852, www.premierholidays.co.uk.)
Stephen Bleach travelled as a guest of Maxjet and Bon Voyage
To the man from Atlanta,its obviously been a while since you've been there.
I went in 1989 and again last Oct.
Since my first visit there has been a whole new pavement/road system put in, complete with small walls outlining the once raw, Canyon edges, making a small barrier.
In my view ,it ruins the Canyon and has made it so commerical.
BUT this does make it safer and will therefore will have many less accidents now.
Although I was disillusioned the last time ,after seeing all the new roads/visitor centres, cafes and hotels which have popped up, I still it is one of the most stunning places on earth!
Emma Jackson, Winchester, England
By the way, a little known fact is that many tourists plunge to their death over the sides Grand Canyon each year. I think it's at least dozens and maybe in the hundreds. In fact when I was there, sure enough in about five minutes I saw a young man who went out dangerously too far on a shear rock jut , stumble and fell backwards on his rear to brace himself so he too didn't plunge to his death. He was about 6 inches away from a certain fall, thousands of feet down. I saw a little girl of about 9 get too far out as well, sitting right on the edge. It is dangerous. This is never well publicised, probably because no one wants to put a damper on the tourism there.
FYI, Another thing to know, many unsuspecting tourists drown in the Gulf Coast due to rip tides each year. Especially in the Pensacola area. The ocean looks deceptively calm and lovely, but don't be fooled. This is another thing that is not well-publicised so that the tourists aren't scared off.
SC, Atlanta, USA
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Johnny, london, ænglan