Hi! The following is unedited from an email a friend of a friend sent me regarding their recent trip to see the new Skywalk at the Grand Canyon. For anyone thinking about going, here is a reality check for you...

My son Chris wanted to see the new "thing" at the Grand Canyon , so we went this weekend. It is advertised as $25.00 to go out on the skywalk and the pictures show a beautiful building next to the walkway. Well; they are not quite "HONEST." It is $25.00 to go on the skywalk, but it is $50.00 to be on the reservation.

You find this out after what they say is a 1 hour trip down a 57 mile dirt road. Wrong! this dirt road is 57 miles alright; the fastest you can go is 25 mph; you do the math!!! So, after this long drive, you get the good news that it is $75.00 a person!!

Chris said maybe we should forget it; I said after that road we are not coming back, so get out the damn credit card. Then you get on their bus for a 10 min ride to the "walkway"--built in one of the ugliest place on the whole Grand Canyon--not a tree to be seen, and the water is gray below! Their building is not started, so you have a trailer to go into to go through a metal detector and leave your camera and purse in the trailer. The walkway glass was cracked which lead me to believe they may have a few engineering glitches, and I got my ass off the thing right away after seeing that! Believe me, it is not as big or long as it looks on TV. They do give you a buffet lunch, with your ticket, at Guano" (means poop) Point. The Indians used to go over the cliff here to pick up bird shit to use for makeup (war paint).

You get to sit in one of the windiest places on earth to eat your chicken or ribs covered with blowing dirt. We passed on the lunch. There are buses leaving every 10-15 min with 52 people on board at $75.00 per person, $3,900.00 per bus from 8:00 am until 6:30 pm. That's $156,000.00 per day! I guess they are making a lot of money. They are flying people in from Vegas and Laughlin to go see this thing! I guess the Indians are smart, but not so honest about all the details of the activity.

We had to stop and change a tire for a young girl who took her grandparents out there. They had the right kind of car and good tires; but the road is terrible, and they blew out the side wall of the tire. They must have hit the side of the road and a big rock. They did not know where the spare tire was and were completely helpless. The tow truck would have come out there, but it would have been 2.5 hours and $400.00! The girl was very scared and grateful we stopped to help.

Some guys stopped to ask if this was the right way to the Skywalk. Grandpa yelled out, "Go back; it is not worth it!!" One last detail, the hotel the Indians run to accommodate this adventure looks great online, but the sign at check-in says:

"SINCE THE TRAINS COME BY EVERY 10 -15 MINS, PLEASE ASK FOR THE FREE EAR PLUGS".

We immediately canceled our reservations and made it to Kingman, AZ for the night. We got up at 6am and got the hell out of Arizona!