Grand Canyon West Rim Adventure

For most of the millions of people who flock to the Grand Canyon each year, the Grand Canyon only has two rims – the popular north and south rim. But that should outright be corrected.

Home of the Hualapai Indian Tribe is the Grand Canyon west rim, which provides another great canyon vista and often less crowded compared with the north and south rims. Only about 120,000 people visit the Grand Canyon west rim each year. The Hualapai Indian Tribe owns a million acres of land across Northern Arizona including the west rim region. Experience hiking without the walkways, fences and traffic inherent in the other two rims.

As part of the Hualapai Indian's efforts to divert about 1,000 acres of Indian reservation into a tourist destination, the Grand Canyon Resort Corporation advanced to a modern feat of building the only glass bridge in the world suspended 4,000 feet above the Colorado River. In case you're interested to know, the Indian Tribe spent more than $40 million for this yet unmatched structure. This is definitely a unique way of viewing the grandeur of the canyon right in the Grand Canyon west rim and quite an incredible reason for tourists to take a side trip to the west rim. The public can start stepping on this 4-inch thick glass bridge for $25 per person on March 28, 2007.

Double your fun at the west rim by watching the Natives perform their ancestral dances in their native costumes or personally get in touch with their culture or appreciate their architecture. Hiking on the grand canyon west rim may be guided or unguided but backpackers are warned not to go too close to the edges since there are no rails to prevent careless souls from falling off more than 4,000 feet down. Nonetheless, the west rim offers a different type of adventure.

Three exciting main points await you on the Grand Canyon west rim. The Eagle Point is where you can relish the truest sense of an Indian Tribe where sumptuous buffets are available any time of the day. Treat yourself to an Indian shopping in the Hualapai Market. At the west rim is where visitors can find groves of among the oldest Joshua Trees in the world some of which are 900 years old!

The Grand Canyon west rim is much closer to Las Vegas (only 120 miles away), giving tourists a chance to party in a Vegas show after a nature trip at the canyon.