Also at Grand Canyon West is Guano Point – another picturesque overlook with great views of the Grand Canyon with the Colorado river flowing at its base. I'm guessing they still operate the tour the same way – or its an option. You park at the Grand Canyon West airport, then take the shuttle bus to the skywalk, then the bus takes you on to Guano Point. Certainly there used to be a cafe there and a market of local Indian crafts. But the best part is the unobstructed views.
It's called Guano Point because some intrepid explorer noticed a bunch of bats flying in and out of caves in the canyon walls. So they set up an operation, building gantries at the top of the canyon and scaling down the cliffs to the caves, so they could harvest the guano. Bat guano, back in the day, was a key input to gun powder so there was plenty of demand in the old west for this stuff.
You can take the ten-minute hike up the peak for unobstructed 360° views of the Grand Canyon. Many commentators rate the view above that of the skywalk and it's certainly much cheaper (you just have to pay the entrance fee for Grand Canyon West and the shuttle bus fee but don't have to buy skywalk tickets). Again, no fences, no handrails so you certainly want to keep your kids close.
One benefit the natives and pioneers had when experiencing these views was the lack of helicopters buzzing around. While I love the helicopter tours, for those not in the chopper the buzzing can be quite annoying, destroying the calm and serenity of this natural wonder.
The photo above was shot with my Canon 75-300mm
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Production Data
Camera: Canon EOS 5D
Lens: Canon 75-300mm f/4.0-5.6 III USM
Processing: Lightroom 4 beta
Processing: Photomatix 4.02
Processing: Photoshop CS5
Processing: Topaz Adjust 5
