Grand Canyon Trip - West Rim

Grand Canyon needs no description. Whoever visits US makes sure to drop by this natural wonder at least once. This Thanksgiving we went on 5 days long trip to Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Francisco; having stayed in Las Vegas for three nights and two days, we covered much of Las Vegas and its surrounding hotspots in given time. Talking about popular tourist destinations near to Nevada, Grand Canyon, for one, needs to be placed at the top of the itinerary. There are three vantage points of Grand Canyon frequented by tourists - South rim, West rim and north rim. West rim being nearer to Las Vegas was on the top of our preference, besides we wanted to enjoy the Skywalk that makes the experience exclusive from others.

Eagle Point

From Las Vegas to west rim Grand Canyon is of 280 miles distance, the drive taking about 4 and half hours to complete. I must warn you about two things here. The last leg of the journey about 20 miles drive through the dirt road on the way to the canyon is nightmarish with speed limit reduced to 20 mph, cloud of dust kicked up by the moving cars ahead would limit the visibility making driving an appalling experience. In our case especially while returning back when the sun was blazing in full glory with the car ahead leaving a huge mass of dust in our trail and the reflection of sunbeam on the dust particles dazzled our vision, many a time what we thought to be a sparkling long stretch of road ended into a sharp turn resulting in treacherous last minute hard braking at every curve. I literally had my heart in my mouth then. So before coming down to the canyon, please ensure the car's serviceability. The last thing one can imagine while on a tour to have his car broken down in the middle of a dusty road with no possibility of help nearby. I had seen one couple's car coming to a dead stop in the dirt road on our way to the canyon and on our way back, I saw the car still standing there, emptied of the passengers. 

Guano Point

Second thing that you ought to keep in mind is to carry a homemade lunch as the food provisions in the canyon are absolutely deficient in quality and delivery. We ordered two turkey sandwiches that were delivered after about 2 hours and that too cold. The lunch option of Chinese dishes over there is purely grotesque. Despite the crowd of tourists visiting the canyon on Thanksgiving was thin in number, the canteen was struggling to fulfill orders within time. One can only imagine what kind of pandemonium takes place in peak season with higher number of tourists.

Warnings made, now move on to the fun part of the Grand Canyon visit. There are two viewpoints within West rim - Eagle and Guano Points. Though both the points are beautiful in their own unique way, while Eagle point is famous for its skywalk, Guano Point offers the view of the canyon more breathtaking in nature. Since Eagle Point is the first stop of the canyon, most of the tourists spend larger part of their time here, walking on the skywalk and waiting lunch for hours, just like we did. But I would suggest that once you get done with skywalk, travel to Guano Point as soon as possible because Guano Point is one of the most stunning points in the whole of the Grand Canyon. Walking up to the tip of the guano, you may enjoy a nearly 360 degree absolutely riveting vista of the canyon and the lake Colorado flowing in the middle, the experience inexplicable in words. Besides, if you desire, here you may sample the Hualapai Buffet meal sitting by the edge of the canyon.

As regards Eagle Point, it is so named because of the mountains having formed in the shape of an eagle spreading its wings. As mentioned earlier, Eagle Point is known for its skywalk which is a horse-shoe shaped bridge with glass panel floor providing astounding bird's eye view of the canyon. The glasses made of solid unbreakable stuff are truly hardy. Those having fright of heights can surely try to overcome their fear by walking upon the skywalk and peering into the beauty sprawled below. One bummer was, however, that photography was strictly forbidden on skywalk. They have their own photographers to click snaps and sell out. Some snap shots of our entire experience of Grand Canyon are attached herewith for you to enjoy and relate to.