Tribe pays to end canyon Skywalk road lawsuit

PHOENIX — Before they get to the Grand Canyon's glass-bottom Skywalk, most visitors are treated to an unexpected thrill — 14 miles of dusty, axle-busting road that twists around Joshua trees on the Hualapai Indian reservation.

That ride should get much easier over the next few years, the Hualapai tribe said Friday.

The Hualapai said they've finally reached an agreement with a nearby landowner to pave the old washboard road.

"It's such a relief," said Sherri Yellowhawk, CEO of the Grand Canyon Resort Corp., the business arm of the tribe. "Usually (tourists) are upset by the time they get there."

About 100,000 people have visited the massive horseshoe-shaped observation deck since it opened in March.

The Skywalk offers straight-down, spine-tingling views 4,000 feet above the canyon floor and is an important source of income for the Hualapai, who rely on tourist dollars, and David Jin, the Las Vegas businessman who paid for its construction.

But bringing people to the remote western edge of the canyon has been difficult. The tribe operates a small airport near the Skywalk, but most visitors still come by car along Diamond Bar Road.

The rugged dirt road has claimed numerous vehicles as tourists flocked to the west rim. The Hualapai wanted to pave it for years, Yellowhawk said, but Nigel Turner, who owns the Grand Canyon West Ranch, blocked the construction with a lawsuit.

Turner said he worried the road would endanger the ancient Joshua trees, some of which are a few centuries old. He said he worried that a paved road would transform the region into a busy tourist center like the canyon's popular south rim, 90 miles to the east.

"I bought the ranch really to protect it and to have it for eco-tourism, and my concern was that a paved road coming through the ranch was going to do a lot of destruction to the environment," Turner said. "That's not the business we're in. The people here want a lot of quiet and tranquility."

The Hualapai recently paid Turner $750,000 to settle the lawsuit and clear the way for road construction.

"You can only go so far with these fights on your own," Turner said.