Wednesday, March 23
Our time at the
Needles KOA is over. Broke camp and
moved on today. While at the Needles campground,
I would have to go up by the clubhouse to get online. Our campsite was just too far away for a
signal. There had been a group of maybe
10 people from the RV side of the park getting together each night for a card
game or Bingo, and it seems there was usually a dessert to share. I sat outside, but the door was open so I
could hear them if I tuned in, but mostly I was in my own world, sorting out
and recording the events of the day. They’d wander outside when it was time for a
smoke break, chat a bit, and then head back in. I couldn’t help but hear their
conversation when they were outside. They know a bit about each other’s lives outside the park and it sounded
like it was getting to be time for some of them to head home, wherever home may
be…I know it’s Canada for one couple. I didn’t butt into any of their
conversations, but several times I wanted to.J Anyway, it was an interesting glimpse into the world of winter RV resorters, but don’t think I’m ready for that yet.
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One of my mottos
has become ‘take the opportunities when you get them because you might not get
another one’. When looking at where we
were heading (Flagstaff), an opportunity presented itself. Kingman was about an hour down the road on our
way to Flagstaff. If we spent the night there, we could make the
trip up to Grand Canyon West, the part of the canyon that’s controlled by the
Hualapai tribe (phonetical pronunciation: Wall-a-pie) and be on our way to
Flagstaff tomorrow. Back when we were
planning our trip, we had made a list of the ‘must see’ stuff….Grand Canyon was Kim’s
contribution. He’d been there briefly
years ago, but wanted another look. So I
thought Grand Canyon West would be a good opportunity to get a more complete
view of the canyon. Timewise, it made
sense to get a hotel instead of a campsite.
We got to the hotel about noon, dropped the trailer and headed right out
for the canyon. We took the truck because I knew from a previous visit that
there was a section of the road that was gravel/dirt….not keen on riding that
on the bikes. Update: Since my last visit, the road has been
improved…completely paved now. So we
could have ridden the bikes, but since we didn't leave until about 1 p.m. and the drive was
about 1 ½ hours, we didn’t get back until after dark. It was a good plan to take the truck.
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This is the way
the Grand Canyon West experience works:
you park, you go into the visitor’s center and purchase tickets to get
on a bus that takes you the rest of the way.
There are a variety of ticket options; the more you want to do, the more
you pay. You can do the basic,
which is the cheapest way to go beyond the visitors center…you get to visit the
Hualapai Ranch (looked like a family experience) and the two viewing points out
at the rim of the canyon. Or you can go for broke…an airplane ride
overhead, a helicopter ride down into the canyon, a pontoon boat ride on the
Colorado River. Then of course, if you want
to eat, you can buy a meal ticket with your tour package or purchase from
the a la carte menu out at the viewing points.
Then there’s the Skywalk…a horseshoe shaped glass walkway that
takes you out beyond the rim, with nothing but air and about 2,000 feet between
you and the bottom of the canyon. It
wasn’t completed at the time of my first visit in 2006; and frankly, I couldn’t
believe somebody thought that walking on glass out over the canyon was a good
idea. Kim didn’t have any issues with
going out on it. I figured enough people
have walked on it and it hasn’t fallen down yet, so I was going to do it, too....until
we found out that cell phones and cameras were not allowed; they were to be
left in lockers before heading out on the Skywalk. However, there would be a professional
picture, taken out on the Skywalk, available for purchase. We had been willing to pay the additional price for
the Skywalk…but when we found out we weren’t allowed to take pictures, we
passed on it. That was our choice. And after
watching people along the rim fiddling with their selfie sticks, cameras and
cell phones would really slow down the
flow of people out on the Skywalk. So I get the reason behind not allowing them out there. Bottom line is that I didn’t
get to test my courage and tempt gravity on the Skywalk, but I’m really okay with that.
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Grand Canyon
West is a real boost to the economy of the Hualapai tribe. It’s their tribal land and they’ve chosen to
offer people another way to experience the Grand Canyon, instead of just building another casino. This can be a family experience
(although an expensive one), as well as a cultural experience…something you
can’t say about a casino.
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Overheard this
comment from one brother to another as all around are taking in the splendor of
the Grand Canyon:
Older brother, smiling: Hey, that’s the Rio Grande down there and
that’s Mexico over there. (pointing to the other side)
Younger brother: What? Really?
I don’t believe
the older brother really thought that, but it sounded like the younger brother
may have been taking the bait. J
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Besides the
Ranch, the bus takes visitors to two stops along the canyon rim. Eagle Point is where the Skywalk is located
and Guano Point is where the remnant of a guano mining operation is
located. That’s right…someone tried
mining bat poop at the canyon rim. This
is an excerpt from Wikipedia on the subject:
The Bat Cave guano mine, located
in the western Grand Canyon of Arizona at river mile 266, 800 feet (240 m) above Lake Mead, was an unusual, expensive and noteworthy mining
operation. The natural cave was a bat habitat and contained an accumulation
of guano.
The
cave was apparently discovered in the 1930s by a passing boater. Several
unsuccessful early attempts were made to mine the nitrogen-rich guano deposit within the cave for fertilizer.
The U.S. Guano Corporation bought the property around 1957. Based on a
reputable mining engineer's estimate that the cave contained 100,000 tons of
guano, the company constructed an elaborate plan to extract the guano. A small
airstrip was built on a nearby sandbar in the Colorado River, and all supplies and machinery needed were then
flown in. An aerial tramway was built from the mine to Guano
Point on the South Rim, with the cable headhouse built on land leased
from the Hualapai tribe.
The cableway crossed the river, with a main span of 7,500 feet (2,300 m),
and a vertical lift of 2,500 feet (760 m). About 30,000 feet
(9,100 m) of 1.5 inch (38 mm) steel cable were used, to support and pull a
cable car large enough to transport 2,500 pounds (1,100 kg) of guano. The
same car was used to transport the miners to and from work. The guano was mined
using a large industrial "vacuum-cleaner" with ten-inch hoses. From
the cable head, the guano was hauled by truck to Kingman, Arizona
and packaged for retail sale.
The mining
engineer's estimate of the potential size of the guano deposit proved wildly
optimistic: the cave contained only about 1,000 tons of minable guano, not the
100,000 tons of the engineer's estimate. Most of the cave was filled with
valueless limestone rubble.
Mining ceased in early 1960. Guano sold for about $100 a ton then, so this
was not a profitable venture.
Just seems like a whole lot
of trouble for bat poop.
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