We were picked up from our hotel at about 6.30am and arrived back in Las Vegas at 6pm as we got slightly delayed on route. Some people dont understand how to tell the time and they were late for the bus! Nevertheless it did not make too much of a difference to the excursion in general.
The bus we travelled on was very comfortable and there was generous leg room and the air conditioning was on the entire time. To be honest it was one of the best bus journeys I have been on in a long time.
Our first point of call was breakfast in a typical American diner in a town called Boulder City which is just outside Las Vegas. The residents of this town keep it very neat and tidy and no gambling is allowed and it is the complete opposite to Las Vegas! We had a few different options for breakfast and I opted for the breakfast buritto which was a decent feed and set me up for the day.
Once breakfast was over we went on our way again. The distance from Las Vegas to the West Rim is about 130 miles 9 of which is dirt road so it can get pretty bumpy. They don't recommend this tour if your pregnant.
Something I learned is the Grand Canyon is actually not considered US soil and is a sovergn nation. It belongs to a tribe of native Indians called the Haulapei tribe. It was interesting because the gift shop had Hualapei tribe memorabilia including arrows!
The next stop the bus dropped us was a white building called the "terminal". All buses have to drop off visitors here and other buses run by the Hualapei tribe are used to get around to the two viewing points - Eagle Point and Guano Point. Aerial tours also take off from the "terminal" so this is another option you have if you don't want to take the bus tour.
Eagle Point was the first stop and its name comes from the formation of rock that looks like an eagle which is shown in the picture below. It took me a while to spot the eagle formation in the rock and I did not get it straight away! The skywalk is also located here which is an optional extra. It is an oval see through glass panel that goes over the edge and looks straight down to the bottom of the canyon. It's not for those afraid of heights or the faint hearted!
I had travelled all the way from Ireland so took the opportunity to go on the skywalk. It costs $35 per person and bear in mind that you are not allowed to take any personal belongings with you. They do however provide lockers to store your things while your on the skywalk. There are photographers on the skywalk and it costed us $80 for a USB stick with about 15 pictures on it.
The skywalk experience is expensive but you probably wont get the chance to do it again. We were shown a video on the bus on the way to the Grand Canyon about how the skywalk was built and how they recently replaced all the glass panels. A substantial amount of work has gone into construction and maintenance of the skywalk and this is my understanding of why they charge the relatively high entry fee.
After the skywalk we got on the bus to the next stop - Guano Point. We got our lunch here which was a simple roast chicken dinner with potatoes, veg and gravy. It was not amazing food but it did the job. Guano Point has a number of different views of the Grand Canyon so a few more pictures were in order! Below is a picture from Guano Point.
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