Grand Canyon Skywalk Disappoints Early Visitors

Grand Canyon Skywalk Disappoints Early Visitors

Grand Canyon Skywalk :: Hicks-Wright.net Blog

"I was there in 2nd and 6th this month (April 2007). It's funny how they develop new strategies and rules each day, on Monday it was possible to go to the rim behind, so I guess west of the skywalk, on Friday a security guy was staying there and some self written signs telling no trespass allowed..."

This interesting blog, along with a slew of comments, accounts the disappointing experience that visitors are having at the new Grand Canyon Skywalk.

I have lived in northern Arizona for 20 years now and have been to the Hualapai Reservation a couple of times in that period. They have been trying to develop the Skywalk site for as long as I can remember. Most ventures, which included a casino at one time, have generally failed -- although I was surprised to learn recently that even without the Skywalk they received some 150,000 tourists a year. I believe that much of this is charter bus and air tours from Las Vegas, as they probably have the closest "Grand Canyon experience" to Las Vegas, short of going all the way to the National Park.

The blog post linked above is eye-opening and, unfortunately. not too surprising. The experiences listed by visitors to the Skywalk is fairly similar to my experiences on Indian lands in Arizona over the years, which is that agreements with off-reservations developers are not well thought through, and the attractions are often not ready for prime time.

Hopefully this will change over time, but will they be able to overcome the bad publicity and feelings that these initial experiences are creating? First impressions can have lasting consequences.