The Grand Canyon Skywalk in Arizona is a transparent horseshoe-shaped cantilever platform on the edge of a side canyon in the Grand Canyon West area of the main canyon, overlooking the Colorado River.
The Skywalk is 1100 metres above the Colorado River. It is owned by the Hualapai Indian tribe. It opened in early 2007.
In 2008 I drove to the Skywalk from Newport Beach via Laughlin.
The Skywalk extends 21 metres out over the Canyon and was built to withstand a force 8.0 magnitude earthquake. The floor of the structure is glass; strong, highly specialised glass. While only 120 people are allowed out on the platform at any one time it was designed to carry seven times that number of people.
The Skywalk was assembled on top of the canyon wall in line with its final placement and moved into final position by a jack and roll rig. It weighs 450 tonnes.
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- The Skywalk
While queueing to go out on the Skywalk we were able to see others in front of us as they stepped onto this amazing piece of architecture.
Almost without exception people would walk out normally, boldly even, and then start shuffling. I was intrigued by this – it got me wondering why. We were to find out soon enough.
Just before we were allowed onto the glass platform we were given cloth ‘overshoes’. With these donned we walked out onto the Skywalk – and started shuffling. The shock of looking down more than a kilometre is unnerving, scary even! The first reaction is stop and grab for the side rails. The narrow section of painted glass at the side rail is comforting. But step back out onto the clear glass with its unrestricted, kilometre deep view and it was difficult to not be intimidated.
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- The Grand Canyon West is not nearly as commercially developed as the South Rim.
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- Colorado River
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- Geologically young.
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- Colorado River
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- The Grand Canyon is one of the most recognisable landforms on planet Earth.
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- The age of the Grand Canyon is somewere between 6 and 80 million years – depending on definitions as to when it was formed.
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- The portion of river that flows through the Grand Canyon is largely encompassed by the Grand Canyon National Park.
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- The processes that formed the canyon are in dispute.
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- 1200 metres to the floor of the canyon.
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- Promoted as one of the seven natural wonders of the world, the Grand Canyon is actually only the eighth greatest canyon in the world..
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- The river flows through the Grand Canyon for 446 kilometres of its 2330 kilometre overall length.
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- The Grand Canyon area is claimed to have some of the cleanest air in the United States.
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- A geology lesson in a photograph.
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- The canyon is the result of erosion that exposes one of the most complete geologic columns on the planet.
GUANO
Guano was discovered in a cave on the wall of the canyon by a passing boater n the 1930s. Several unsuccessful attempts were made to mine the nitrogen-rich guano for fertiliser. The U.S. Guano Corporation, believing there to be a deposit of 100,000 tons of guano in the cave, bought the property and built a $3.5 million tramway system to extract it.
The cable head house of the aerial tramway was built at Guano Point. The cableway crossed the river, with a main span of 2300 metres and a vertical lift of 750 metres. The mine closed in 1959 after the guano was exhausted.
Sometime after the mine was closed a US Air Force fighter jet crashed into the overhead cableway and permanently disabled it. The remaining structures have been left intact as part of the mining heritage of the canyon.
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- Guano Point. This contraption was the head or winder for a ‘flying fox’ arrangement that retrieved guano from a mine lower in the canyon.
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- Abandoned guano mine. The guano was removed via a ‘flying fox’.
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- Adit to mine.
Several helicopter tours operate out of the Skywalk complex. Most had long queues or were booked out.
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- Helicopter tours.
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- A great way to see the canyon.
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- Another helicopter tour operator.
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- Tour the canyon by helicopter.
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- Tours were booked out.
Well worth the effort.
RIDE THE SKY
The Grand Canyon Zipline opened in early 2018. It is a few kilometres to the south of the Skywalk. There are two ‘quad’ ziplines – one 335 metres in length and the other 640 metres long. Adventurers zip across the canyon at speeds up to 70 kph, more than 300 metres above the floor.
© Kim Epton 2008-2022
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