Grand Canyon National Park - Part III

Grand Canyon National Park - Part II

Grand Canyon National Park - Part I

2009-08-02: Many people have seen, or want to see, this immense rift, and for good reason. The scale of it is simply incredible. I find it fascinating that a mere river was the cause of it all.

The Grand Canyon Skywalk was something I wanted to experience. I was confident that I could do this without feeling fear, although I expected perhaps a bit of vertigo. Oddly, I could not find any information in the official park brochure on its location. Connecting to the Internet, I discovered the unfortunate details. First of all, it's not part of the national park. You have to pay around $40 to get onto the property, which is part of the Hualapai reservation. I considered that to be a bit expensive, but withing acceptable bounds. You were not allowed to use your own vehicle, so you ride a bus down 10 miles of dirt road. Once you arrived, it costs an additional $35 or so to actually use the Skywalk. I was still debating whether or not to do it as that was more than I wanted to spend. Then I found out that cameras are not allowed on the Skywalk, but you can have a staff member take a photo for you, for which you will have to pay $30. I decided not to go. Note that the cost is around $75 per each person.

I do understand that Hualapai are impoverished and struggling, but had their prices been more fair, they could have earned some of my money, rather than none. I am certain I'm not the only person who thinks this.

Thus, I entered the south side of the national park. I considered climbing down into the canyon but that is apparently a multi-day event, and I did not have the gear for that.

As with so many other things I have tried to show, I will let the photos be the description. The clouds of smoke you see are from a controlled burn on the other north side. You will see that I'm as close to the edge as I could get in one of them!

Travel Notes: Barstow » Grand Canyon National Park, AZ

2009-08-02: I began this day by waking up 90 minutes early and having about 30 miles worth of fuel. According to my GPS, 15 miles through some desert backroads would get me to the highway I needed to be on. I hoped that the distance was accurate, and that the roads would be usable, and that there would be access to fuel within my range, but if not, I was prepared for both an off-road adventure and a long, hot walk. This detour did provide an opportunity for photography of this inhospitable landscape. Shacks constructed of various sorts of scrap and piles of junk could be seen periodically, and I suspect that a few of them were inhabited.
Thankfully, the directions were accurate and I rolled into a dusty gas station with 5 miles remaining. It was not yet 7:00, and the few droplets of condensation that fell from the cold drink I gulped as I refilled my tank evaporated instantly when landing upon the concrete slab that marked the boundary between this tiny shop and the shimmering amber wasteland. It seems I did not start travelling early enough. Within an hour, the temperature had risen to around 110°. Some stretches of highway scenery were devoid of any plant life and were strewn with black boulders, somewhat reminiscent of the Martian landscape as shown by Spirit and Opportunity. 

I stopped in Needles, CA to rest and make sure my vehicle was in good order. I crossed into Arizona and it wasn't 10 minutes before I was stopped by a state police officer. He claimed the reason for the stop was that having my GPS attached to my windshield was obstructing my view. I asked where I could put it and his response was "not there." Then he began to ask accusatory questions, to which I gave short, blunt answers. "Is someone paying you to make this trip?" What? No. "How are you paying for it?" From my bank account. "You're coming from northern California? Lots of drugs around there!" Oh, really? "So you don't have any illegal narcotics for personal use?" No. Then he accused me of looking nervous and asked "You don't have any large amounts of drugs, like 2 kilos or more?". As if I wouldn't admit to having small amounts but I would admit to having large amounts. I don't like being treated as guilty until proven innocent. I was ready to demand a warrant should he ask to search my car. Eventually he got bored of harassing me and "let me off" with a "warning". It so happened that this wouldn't be the last time this would occur… That aside, it was an easy drive to the town of Williams, AZ, and then into Grand Canyon National Park.