I was super excited about taking my kids to see Grand Canyon West the morning of July 20. Dewayne was our tour guide and he did not disappoint. He knew his stuff! Great storyteller. He told us all about the Las Vegas and all kinds of unique things along the way. He gave the best advice which was to skip the first stop and just go straight to the Skywalk when we arrived at Grand Canyon West. That's exactly what we did. When we got there I didn't see anyone out on the Skywalk but didn't realize it was closed. It was cloudy when we got there but it was not raining or even any type of light drizzle. The store for souvenirs is also very small and there were limited choices. I took some pictures and we got on the bus that would take us to the last stop to have lunch. By then it was raining. We got lunch and had to sit in a section where we got wet as we had our lunch. Fortunately, someone at the next table got up and let us have their seat where we didn't get wet. We heard that the Skywalk was open so of course we got over there as fast as we could. It was 1:30pm Dewayne told us to be back at the bus by 2:15pm. We arrived around 1:40pm at the Skywalk to a very long line. However, the guy said the wait was only 10-15 min. After 10 minutes of not moving in the line, we decided to leave. My kids were afraid we'd get left. So we went back to the bus without seeing what we really came to see. We arrived to Grand Canyon West around 11:15am. So all you have is really 3 hours to do everything. If the Skywalk is closed, there isn't really much to see. And if they reopen the Skywalk, be prepared to wait a long time to get on it. Next time I go, I will drive. The road leading in is paved. One last thing, we did stop by Hoover Dam. It would have been nice to get out and walk where you can actually look down into the dam or go up on the bridge, even if it's quite a few steps to get up there. I will never do a tour again. If I do one , I will research a little first. When we got back to the bus, we had to wait 30 minutes for 2 ladies who did see the Skywalk. They were probably in line the same time we were but they decided to see it because after all, that's what they came there for, and the bus waited for them. It would have been nice to know up front that the bus can't actually leave you. I would have waited in line at Skywalk if I'd known that. All that money for nothing.
Picked up on time and in comfort in shuttle bus and taken to meeting point for transfer to tour bus for journey to canyon, bus driver Harrison was fantastic and kept us entertained for journey to canyon. Once at canyon scenery is amazing and we ate at ranch before going to eagle point and guano point
This was a great day trip during our stay in Las Vegas. We were between the West Rim and South Rim--and from reading, it sounded like the South Rim would be more what we were looking for, but was a good 15 hour day, so we went with this trip instead. We were not disappointed. The bus driver Anthony was awesome! He gave some great history and background on Vegas and other points along the way. We also got to view a movie on the making of the Skywalk, which was very interesting. Once at the West Rim, there's three stops on the Indian Reservation with a circulating bus. The first stop, which was an Indian Village/Town, which I thought was gimmicky, boring, and not interesting at all. I would've gotten our lunch there since the food smelled good, but it was still too early. We were maybe there 10 or 15 minutes. Stop 2 was where the Skywalk was, which we did not do but it looked awesome, but the views at this stop were amazing. The visitor center was a good spot for information as well. The 3rd stop was worth the price of admission. From the point--you get an almost 360 view of the canyon, which made for a great panoramic picture taken with my phone. The food there was great, and we sat basically right near the cliff. We spent most of our time at this spot. We had plenty of time to do what we needed to, and then headed back to the bus. Pickup to Dropoff was about 11 hours total....so we were back in Vegas in time to rest our feet, and then get dinner and gamble some more!