Grand Canyon Skywalk

[colin]

By late March, you can step over the rim of Grand Canyon

Yes, I'm sure you've all heard something about it, but it is actually coming. That little section of the "West Rim" owned by the Hualapai Nation will soon have a glass-enclosed structure actually jutting over the canyon into its abyss. Scared?

You should be:

"The Skywalk facility will include a 6,000-square-foot visitors center housing a museum, a movie theater, a lounge, a gift shop, and several restaurants and bars. The three-level visitors center, planned to open late next year, will offer patio and rooftop seating, and facilities for meetings and special events."

The $25/person admission fee is also quite a bit more than the regular park entrance ($25/car), which I would personally rather do since the park itself provides access to hiking trails, interpretive centers, and quite a bit of the canyon's rim.

What happened to Native Americans actually wanting to preserve natural beauty and the land? That stereotype of the crying Indian seems to have vanished completely, and now we have Hualapais building monstrosities over our natural treasures and Seminoles buying tacky, poor-quality, tourist trap restaurant chains.

Any thoughts?

[MJLO]

I think that no matter how much integrity and pride you have at first, as the generations go buy, the message gets more and more lost, until what was once very sacred loses it's meaning and the almighty dollar sets in. Capitalism and Nature preservationists will always be at odds. As the market goes, if there is a place that millions of people visit every year. There's always going to be someone with an idea to drain every cent they can out of the poor suckers. I have never been, but I bet the areas around Yellowstone, and Yosemite, are just as commercial and built up. Tho this is different because it's right over the canyon. Personally I think it sounds cool. But I worry about preserving the integrity and natural beauty of the canyon, if to much of this goes on.

[colin]

Tribe attaches massive steel bridge at edge of Canyon

I'm no engineer, but something spells "imminent danger" to me based on what's being discussed in this article regarding its setup. "Tractor trailers", "steel cubes", "1.07 million pounds"? Even if the preservation aspect were disregarded, this never would have been built in the park solely because of safety concerns and potential liability when 100 or so people fall into the great abyss followed by several thousand tons of steel and concrete.

[MJLO]

and with that said........ guess where Matt will not be standing in the near future?

[tombarnes]

I saw something about this recently on the news. The structure is hardly an enhancement to the area- it's not graceful or attractive in any way. If I were there, I might still want to see the thing, but the last time I was at the Grand Canyon, I could only get so close to the edge before my knees told me not to proceed. I hate the thought of the Grand Canyon being turned into an arcade.