The Grand Canyon Skywalk - Hualapai Dreamland

I do not know anyone, not a river runner, Grand Canyon resident, or friend who has gone out on the Hualapai tribe's new glass Skywalk. So when I had a chance to visit this attraction at half price, I jumped - let me rephrase that - I took advantage of the opportunity. I was helping out on a Hollywood scout of the Grand Canyon in a pre-production locations search for an upcoming movie called "Due Date" starring Robert Downey Jr. No stars we present - just the director and producer who weighed the pro's and con's of filming here at Grand Canyon West (GCW) or the traditional view at Grand Canyon National Park.

The approach to the Skywalk is off of the Pierce Ferry/Meadview Road. Joshua Trees greet travelers on this dirt track which is currently being paved by Mojave County. The Grand Wash Cliffs, edge of the Colorado Plateau, is the background.

The empty entrance booth. Fees to enter Hualapai land total $42.00 per person. This includes a $29.00 entrance fee, $3.00 fuel charge (for the bus rides), $8.00 Impact Fee, and a Hualapai Tribal tax.

The gift shop has loads of plastic tomahawk's and stuffed Indian dolls.


After a short 3 mile bus ride, this was my first view of the Skywalk* There is no other angle from which to take a picture of it and camera's are not allowed on the "bridge." There are photographers wandering the glass plus photo radar type cameras to take your picture. Starting price $30.00 for one picture.

* I have seen the Skywalk from the river looking up.

Here you see the full drop to the Colorado River. Pre-trip information states that "it is 4,000 ft. straight down to the river." Actually it is about 800 feet down to a ledge of Redwall Limestone and about 2,700 feet above the river. Many exaggerations in statistics were noted. To go onto the Skywalk is an additional $32.05 on top of the previous fees.

I stayed out on the bridge for about an hour - long enough to listen to three different sets of people come through. Some were very scared and did not wander out onto the glass. Others were in awe of the Skywalk. But most folks seemed to be taken by the majesty of the Grand Canyon.

This is the backside of the Skywalk building. It is beautifully constructed but unfinished at this time.

There are some nice shade structures constructed away from the rim of the canyon. This one houses a dance floor where women of the tribe dance during the day.

Here are two members of the tribe doing a dance. No one was watching when I was here.

Numerous wikiups are constructed around a cultural trail. They also have Plains Indian tipis, Hopi pueblos, and Navajo hogans. The added benefit of these wikiups is that have full electricity (foreground).

This is Don, another Hualapi tribal member, I just loved his red feather headress.

I wonder if the name of this restaurant is lost on people? The Bat Shit Cafe!

A gorgeous view of the Colorado River from Guano Point. Note that the river here is perched on at least 50 feet of sediment deposited when Lake Mead was much higher. Thus, the river is not "natural" here.

Guano Point was named because this is where a cableway was built to extract guano from Bat Cave down near the river. After constructing this cableway, it was determined that there was very little guano to be mined and the effort died.

The seal of the Hualapai tribe. I have mixed feelings about this development. I wish the tribe well, but there is certainly a sense of "retribution" that I feel from the tribe. It is much more expensive to visit GCW vs. the national park. Many things seem hokey, trite, and ill-advised. But perhaps the greatest threat from this type of "entertainment tourism" is that it may only be the tip of the proverbial iceberg for what the tribe has in store here in the future. Right now there is a "Vietnam-type" atmosphere at GCW with zillions of helicopters and planes in the air. It is not a peaceful place. These helicopters bring tourists to boats that ply the river - with a total disregard for the Grand Canyon River Management Plan. A Las Vegas entrepreneur put up the money for the Skywalk and takes half of the receipts. What future deals will the tribe make with Las Vegas personalities? Hotels in the canyon? Casinos? Are tribes immune to rules, decorum, or even common sense in places like the Grand Canyon. Or is it "their land" with a right to do "whatever we want?" It all harbors a very chilling thought.

Old Route 66 west of Seligman, Arizona.

Guide Training at the Amangiri Resort, Big Water, Utah

A brand new kind of resort is soon to open on the Colorado Plateau. There has never been anything quite like it. Located just west of Glen Canyon Dam off of US Highway 89, the Amangiri Resort sits on 600 acres of private land tucked between the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and Vermilion Cliffs National Monument. On Friday, September 4 I conducted a field-based, geology training session for the resort staff. The property is spectacular and contains world-class exposures of an ancient sand dune complex (Entrada Sandstone) and a coarse shoreline deposit (Dakota Formation).

View to the west on the Amangiri property. The resort sits in front of the spur of sandstone in the top portion of the valley floor.

The staff are developing a climbing route called the Via Ferrata, named after the famous traverse in the Italian Dolomites. Here we climb through the Entrada Sandstone on the way to the mesa top.

View of the contact between the Middle Jurassic Entrada Sandstone below (165 Ma)and the Late Cretaceous Dakota Formation (105 Ma). An unconformity of 60 million years separates these rock units and developed when the southern Colorado Plateau was uplifted in the Early Cretaceous during the Nevadan Orogeny.

Numerous bolts with steps have been set in the rocks. Climbing specialists will help willing guests to make the climb up the cliff face and across the geologic contact.

Close-up view of the resort property from atop the Via Ferrata climb.

View from the top of the mesa towards the resort property.


A loop hike brought us to another great canyon cut into the Entrada Sandstone. An obvious break in the cliff is evident here, yet both packages of this sandstone belong to a single rock unit. Future studies may one day segregate these sand bodies into separate formations (or members) but this distinction is restricted only to the local area.

Fantastic tafoni structures within the Entrada were seen along the route. Note that these are not distributed randomly throughout the rock, but rather form preferentially along the cross-bedded surfaces (angled lines) or the bounding surfaces (horizontal lines). Before the sandstone was exposed to erosion, groundwater moved along these planes and gradually weakened the sandstone cement. When the rock was finally exposed, the pockets of weakened sand grains eroded out more rapidly than surrounding areas.

Hikers on the Via Ferrata, Amangiri Resort, Utah

Virginia and Washington DC

Helen and I just returned from Virginia and Washington DC. I am posting a few pictures from the Shenandoah Valley and our capital city.

The Shenandoah River from near the town of the same name.

Helen's brother Richard took us to a wonderful German restaurant in Madison, Virginia

The town of Fredericksburg is full of Revolutionary War and Civil War history and has a very quaint downtown area that was great for walking.

Creative name for a tattoo shop in Fredericksburg

The falls on the Rappahannock River. These rapids limited upstream navigation of ocean-going ships and thus determined the location of Fredericksburg.

I am just fascinated with pre-Revolutionary War history in North America. This sign speaks to events that happened here at the falls.

Our first stop in DC was the Capitol building. We were treated to a tour with one of our congresswomans staff. There is a brand new visitor center that opened last November and it is excellent.

Entrance gallery of the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum.

George Washington's home at Mt. Vernon. I didn't have much interest in going here but Helen wanted to so I tagged along (rather than going to a baseball game at Camden Yards, Baltimore). I was truly impressed with the visit! There was an incredible new museum on the grounds that was superb.

The view of the Potomac River from George Washington's porch. The area across the Potomac in Maryland has been protected to preserve the view-shed. What foresight!

Linda (a friend of mine from Antarctica, 1986) and Helen in rocking chairs looking out over the Potomac from the porch.

John F. Kennedy's grave at Arlington. We were moved by this scene.

The National Park map at Arlington showed that John Wesley Powell was buried here so we hunted for his grave and found it. What a treat.

Ford's Theater in Washington where President Lincoln was assassinated. After seeing a History Channel special earlier this year (on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of Lincoln's birth), I wanted to visit this place. Like many other visits we had on this trip, there was a newly opened museum beneath the theater.

The Presidential Box where the crime happened.

We cruised by the South Lawn of the White House and took a quick picture. The vegetable garden was very near the fence.

We had great weather and it wasn't hot at all.

Helen at the Lincoln Memorial.

Wow!

He was truly a giant among men. One cannot go to Washington, DC and not feel both pride at our many accomplishments as a nation and shame at our inexcusable failings. Our experiment in democracy has yielded unimaginable wealth - both in spirit and treasure. Yet we have gun-downed some of our most capable and honored leaders. Some of us look at the accomplishments and say, "We have achieved this," while others look at our failings and say, "We must strive harder if we are ever to realize the dream." We have a wonderful heritage, unique and bold. But we only dishonor our forefathers by assuming their gift to us is complete.

Opening of "Lasting Light" and "Painting the Canyon" at the Booth Western Art Museum

Helen and I attended the gala opening of the two exhibits, "Lasting Light" and "Painting the Canyon" at the Booth Western Art Museum in Cartersville, Georgia last night.


The evening began with an artists reception at the home of Seth Hopkins, the Executive Director of the Booth. We then attended a lecture by noted Grand Canyon artist Curt Walters of Sedona, who shared his many talents with an audience of about 125 people.


Helen and I were graciously introduced to one and all at the lecture by Mr. Hopkins (as newlyweds) and representing the Grand Canyon Association.


The whole connection between the Booth and GCA began after one of my GC Field Institute hikes in 2006 with a Boy Scout group from Atlanta.


After the hike the scouts volunteered for a public service project in Grand Canyon Village and by chance, were assigned to help carry the "Lasting Light" photographs for hanging in Kolb Studio, June 2006. (To view a catalog of the photo's in "Lasting Light," click this link).


One of the leaders of the scouts saw the photos and once back in Georgia mentioned them to Seth Hopkins, who pursued the idea of bringing the show to the Booth.


Never one to leave well enough alone, Mr. Hopkins also agreed to exhibit 30 paintings of the canyon from the National Park and GCA collections!


The Booth truly is a magnificent Western art museum, every bit as good as anything you'd see in Scottsdale or Jackson! This extra large Maynard Dixon classic hangs in one of the many galleries in the Booth. If your travels ever take you into or near Atlanta, plan on making the 45-minute drive north on I-75 to Cartersville for a visit to the Booth and its sister museum, the Tellus Science Museum. We had a fantastic visit to Cartersville.

Lecture at the Tellus Science Museum, Georgia

Helen and I are in Cartersville, Georgia tonight and I am giving a lecture about "Carving Grand Canyon". We spent the day exploring this wonderful museum, which opened the doors to its huge expansion earlier this year in January. The exhibits are stunning. Tomorrow night we will visit the sister museum, the Booth Western Art Museum where Curt Walters will give a talk about painting the Grand Canyon.

This state of the art facility opened its doors in January, 2009. It is a modern marvel in museum design.


Notice in the museum gift shop about tonight's lecture. We also saw a great show in the planetarium.


Then grand entrance hall to the exhibits with a cast of Apatosaurus (the former Brontosaurus) from Wyoming.


The Gallery of Fossils has many fine examples of Mesozoic dinosaurs.


Here are some Cretaceous marine animals - a 25 foot long turtle and another fish. Both swam in the Great Western Interior Seaway.


The Cenozoic Hall has a giant Wolly Mammoth and Smilodon (saber-tooth cat).