West Rim of Grand Canyon National Park (February 2017)

After two nights in Las Vegas, the goal was to head to Hoover Dam, spend the night near the Grand Canyon, and then go exploring the Canyon the next day. We went to the Hoover Dam and made a stop there (I'll save that for another blog post). Then as we were driving, I realized that we could go to the West Rim and see the Skywalk or we could drive 3-4 more hours to the main entrance of the Grand Canyon.

My dad had mentioned that I should take my wife Eunhee to the Skywalk. I knew it was really popular, so I made a left off of Highway 93 heading toward Meadview, Arizona instead of continuing on 93 to Interstate 40. It was a pretty direct route, but it took about 30-40 minutes to get there after I made a left. The scenery was absolutely breathtaking and there were very few cars on the road. This was especially because it happened to be during a non-peak traveling season and it was Wednesday. My wife had never seen a desert before, so she wanted to take pictures with the desert fauna and plants:

My wife enjoying being in the desert for the first time

In the middle of nowhere! Thankfully it was winter time!

On the way to the West Rim of the Grand Canyon

Then we knew we were getting closer as we saw the edge of the canyon. My wife and I were getting excited. Here's how it was when we were 15 minutes from the parking lot of the Skywalk:

Almost there!

Once we got to the first point (Grand Canyon West), which was about 3:00pm, a police officer told us where to park.

Since we got there later in the afternoon, we couldn't be as leisurely as I was hoping to be. I expected hotels to be around, we could settle down, check-in and then explore the next day. However, once we arrived, the Grand Canyon was before us and we were ready to sightsee right then and there!

Then we walked in and noticed that Native Americans were at the cashier's desk. Little did I know that it was owned by the Hualapai Indian tribe who sold us the tickets to get a bus to drive us to three sections of the Canyon. They lived on a reservation between the West Rim and Meadview, Arizona. The Hualapai tribe opened the Skywalk to the public on March 28, 2007. First, we took a bus to Eagle Point. It was still fairly sunny, we could get great views of the canyon but you can see the darkness starting to creep in.

Eagle Point of the West Rim

Here's an interesting tidbit. The elevation of the West Rim of the Grand Canyon is 4,770 feet (1,450 meters) and the elevation of the Colorado River, which is at the base of the Grand Canyon is 1,160 feet (350 meters).

This was also the same place as the Skywalk, which was very cool but extremely expensive ($76.43 per person). Not to mention that if you want pictures, you can pay about $12 for one hard copy 5" X 7" picture or over $60 for all of the pictures to be digitally e-mailed to you. We had no choice to do the latter since we probably wouldn't be back for a long time if at all. But the memories will make it worth it and we were fairly satisfied with the quality of the pictures. And my wife freaked out a bit as she was walking over the glass. That was worth the experience! Here are a couple of pictures that turned out the best:

At this point, we got on a bus and headed to Guano Point. Then we could get a nice view of the Colorado River in the middle of the canyon. It was getting darker, but we could still see the river fairly well.

Guano Point of the West Rim

Guano Point of the West Rim

We took our final shots before heading back to the parking lot and my wife was happy she came to a place that she learned about in high school. It started getting cooler and a bit darker, so it was time to get going.

Overall, I felt that the main entrance of the Grand Canyon was better than the West Rim since we could actually walk down the canyon, do some hiking, or ride a mule. Hopefully, I'll be able to take my wife there next time. But we conquered the Skywalk and still had a great time. And since we had gotten done early, we could go back to L.A. a day early. Our next goal was to get some dinner and find a hotel to stay at.

Scott Worden (L.A./Seoul Guy)
Instagram: l.a.seoulguy