The Dangerous Reasons Tourists Are Banned From Taking Belongings On The Grand Canyon Skywalk

Have you ever been so caught up in the emotional drama of watching a double rainbow arch across the sky that it never occurred to you to whip out your iPhone to snap a picture or film a video? Then you might just love the Grand Canyon Skywalk, a popular day trip from Las Vegas. But if you're a hardcore digital memory-maker — like, if there wasn't a selfie, did it even happen? — then you won't be happy with a safety-related rule you may not realize exists until you get to the front of a very long line. No cell phones, cameras, purses, backpacks, or belongings of any kind are allowed on the Skywalk. The reason? To keep that glass floor safe from being damaged should you get the dropsies, and to keep the cliffs below from ending up littered with personal items.

The Grand Canyon Skywalk, commissioned in 2007 to the tune of $30 million by the Hualapai Tribe, is a neat piece of engineering. Cantilevered out 70 feet over the canyon, its graceful span lets you gaze down through a 2.5-inch glass floor. It feels perilous, but is in fact quite safe: It's rated to hold 800 people, even though the maximum occupancy is set to 120, which helps give tourists the elbow room to enjoy the experience. When the Skywalk first opened, news accounts show eager tourists snapping selfies with abandon. But there were issues with the glass floor getting scratched and scuffed, necessitating an expensive replacement of the glass in 2011 — hence the implementation of the rule banning personal items. (You will be given a free locker to keep them in.) 

Visitors to the Skywalk who drive two hours from Las Vegas, then make it through a parking shuttle, the airport-like security, and the long lines, have mixed impressions. Some find the experience of striding over open space, gazing down through the glass floor at the canyon floor to be mesmerizing. "Looking down under your feet and seeing birds circling several hundred feet below is quite strange. Knowing that you are higher than the worlds tallest building looking straight down is like nothing else," writes one Tripadvisor visitor. 

Plenty of others, however, can't get past the phone ban, and dismiss the attraction as a tourist trap. A staff of photographers will follow you around to snap Instagram-ready pics you can later purchase — but that's on top of the rather steep general admission of $68, which includes parking, a shuttle, and a ticket to the Skywalk.

Of course, if you're among the 3-6% of humans who suffer from acrophobia, all bets are off either way. But a surprising number of tourists flock to this 4,000-foot high walkway specifically to face down their fears. TikTok and YouTube are packed with post-visit videos of visitors celebrating their triumph over acrophobia. 

Unlike Grand Canyon National Park, which includes the North and South Rims, everything you can visit at Grand Canyon West is privately owned by the Hualapai Tribe and operated as a for-profit concession. There are no developed hiking trails at Grand Canyon West, just a short walk to Guano Point, a viewpoint you can access without a Skywalk ticket (you'll still need general admission). So if you're looking for something that's less of a tourist attraction and more of an immersive natural experience, you might be better served by a trip to the Grand Canyon's spectacular South Rim. You'll need more than one day, as it's 280 miles from Las Vegas or a spectacular scenic 240-mile road trip from Phoenix. But what you'll get for your trouble is a memorable vacation with a multitude of options for recreation, from paved hiking and biking paths along the rim, to trails that dip down below it for superb day hikes. If you're a really rugged adventurer, consider becoming a "one percenter" by backpacking the Grand Canyon rim-to-rim.

If you are really keen to see the Grand Canyon as a day trip, and up for a splurge — and if the eagle is more your spirit animal than the mountain goat — consider a helicopter tour departing from Las Vegas. It's a once-in-a-lifetime splurge, but you'll soar above the scenery, and even dip down below the rim, to touch down inside the canyon itself and stand amid the grandeur.