The past weekend we visited Grand Canyon. We went to both the eastern and the western part which will explain the title of the post.
From Las Vegas we took one of these touristy tours which included a flight to the canyon, a visit to the Skywalk and a meal. There is no doubt about it, the Grand Canyon is grand. But if you expect anything else than a canyon at this site you might be disappointed. The scenic flight did not even go over the canyon but just landed on the airstrip on the same side of the canyon that we came from. If you happened to sit on the wrong side of the plane you did not see much of it. From the air strip there are buses taking the tourists to two sites, Eagle Point and Guano Point. At Eagle Point you will find the Skywalk which is a walkway with glass floor built out over the canyon. You walk out and can see the canyon underneath your feet. It is quite cool unless you are afraid of heights in which case I would not recommend it. However I was disappointed that it was not possible to see all the way down to the river on the bottom of the canyon, this point is quite far away from the Skywalk itself.
The Skywalk
Once we had gotten this far we were quite hungry and went in search of food. It was told that Eagle Point would have Asian food and Guano Point some local barbecue type of food. We chose Asian but as it turned out that you had to sit outside to eat we decide to go and have a look at what the barbecue was like. This day it was very cold and windy so anything outdoors did not feel very attractive. Unfortunately, at Guano Point you also had to sit outside to eat but now there was nothing more to choose from. The food resembled something out of a school kitchen in the 80’s, the only thing worth eating was the brownie. I was left very cold and disappointed after this meal.
The view from Guano Point
The only thing that was indoors was the souvenir shop and considering it is very cold in this area for a number of months every year and the rest of it you are in need of air condition, I am surprised they have not built a decent café or restaurant where you can enjoy the view. It looks like there was meant to be more, at least at the Skywalk, but nothing has been completed and the whole place is a construction site. It is amazing considering the amount of tourists visiting this place that they can not make it more enjoyable to visit.
If it wasn’t for the great views of the Canyon I would have asked for a refund.
The next day we drove to the eastern side where Grand Canyon National Park is. It is a fair drive from Las Vegas and we arrived late in the afternoon. As we drove into the Park we still had not seen a glimpse of the Canyon. We parked and followed the signs to the Rim. All of a sudden this impressive canyon was at your feet, almost giving you a dizzy feeling. It is hard to grasp how large it is and how far it might be to the other side. As you stand there you imagine the surprise of the first people finding this canyon and what they thought as they were planning to head straight on.
The view from Yavapai Point
In this area you find several visitor centers, hotels, restaurants, guided tours and well planned walkways and hikes. The walkway along the rim is about 20 km long and there are several places where you can hike down into the canyon. You can even ride a mule down if you do not want the exercise.
The view from Plateau Point halfways down the canyon
On this side the Canyon is more impressive and also the fact that it is nicely build up around it makes it more worth going to this side. For anyone who has the time I highly recommend going here instead of the western side from Las Vegas.