http://www.lvrj.com/news/7509742.html

May. 15, 2007

Tourists flock to canyon Skywalk

Arizona attraction overcomes rocky start

By HENRY BREAN
REVIEW-JOURNAL

Despite early reviews that knocked it for being too expensive and hard to
reach, the Grand Canyon Skywalk drew more than 50,000 visitors in its first
full month of operation.

The Hualapai Indian Tribe, which owns the glass-bottomed walkway 120 miles
east of Las Vegas, reported approximately 55,000 paying visitors in April.
During the same month last year, 14,000 tourists visited the reservation.

The increased volume has prompted the tribe to hire 140 people, nearly
doubling the staff for its burgeoning tourist destination at the canyon's
west rim.

"It's been wild," said Sheri Yellowhawk, a former Hualapai council member
who now serves as CEO for the tribal-owned Grand Canyon Resort Corp.

The cantilevered walkway extends 70 feet out over the edge of the canyon
and offers panoramas of the Colorado River and nearby Eagle Point. Its deck
of layered glass reveals a view straight down to the canyon floor thousands
of feet below.

But not everyone has been happy with the experience.

Shortly after the Skywalk opened to the public on March 28, complaints
began circulating on the Internet about the cost of the attraction, the 14
miles of rough dirt road leading to it, and other issues, including a ban
on cameras on the walkway.

Misled by national media accounts and confusing information from the
Skywalk's official Web site, some people said they made the 2 1/2-hour
drive from Las Vegas expecting to pay $25 to walk on the attraction. When
they got there, they learned the actual cost: almost $75.

Among those suffering sticker shock was California resident Tyler
Hicks-Wright, who visited the Skywalk with his father, brother and sister
on the second day it was open.

Had they known the actual price of admission and the true condition of the
road, they never would have gone, Hicks-Wright said.

"We were debating whether $25 was going to be worth it," he said. "It was
not what we expected at all. The entire experience was poorly designed."

The Stanford University graduate student described his Skywalk experience
in his Web journal, where he also posted the handful of pictures he snapped
from the walkway using a camera he had hidden in his pocket.

The blog entry evidently touched a nerve. It has drawn 231 responses so
far, ranging from grateful to sarcastic.

"Thanks for the information," one comment reads. "We'll pass on this trap."

Another asks, "Hey, where did you see the $25? Clearly you didn't go to
their website, which my oh my might just be the best source for the cost."

Yellowhawk acknowledged some problems with the operation early on, but she
said major changes have since been made "to satisfy the customers."

Additional shade structures have been put up, and more shuttle buses have
been added to reduce long wait times. "There are bathrooms everywhere for
everyone. We don't run out of food anymore," Yellowhawk said.

Starting Wednesday, the now-infamous dirt road leading to the Skywalk will
be widened and improved, she said. As a temporary fix, the road will be
covered with four inches of gravel and treated with one of two sealants now
being tested. Eventually, the surface will be paved.

Construction of the Skywalk visitor center -- complete with a museum, a
theater, a gift shop, and several restaurants and bars -- could get
underway in as little as two weeks, Yellowhawk said.

As for the ban on cameras and other personal items on the Skywalk,
Yellowhawk said that was done to keep people from dropping items that might
scratch the glass deck or be lost forever over the railing. "Three cameras
and several cell phones have already gone into the canyon in just 40 days,"
she said.

Yellowhawk added that visitors are free to take pictures of the Skywalk
from the edge of the nearby cliff or buy a picture of themselves on the
structure taken by a professional photographer.

Yellowhawk also defended the price of admission, which she said includes a
lunch buffet and access to another canyon overlook, an Old West town, and a
collection of authentic dwellings built by Hualapai, Havasupai, Hopi and
Navajo Indians.

To skip those attractions would be like going to Disneyland just to ride
the Matterhorn, Yellowhawk said.

"That's what people are doing, and that's why they're complaining. That's
why they're feeling ripped off," she said. "If people are going out there
just to walk on the Skywalk, they're doing themselves a disservice. For
$74.95, what you get is something similar to an all-day affair."