Grand Canyon West and Hualapai Ranch Tour – Weekend Trip from LA

A few years ago I spent a couple of weeks with my mate in Los Angeles. I was at the tail of end of 2 months working on a camp in Canada, then 2 months driving around America so I’m going to be honest, a lot of this time was spent watching Arrested Development on Netflix, having Epic Mario Kart tournaments, drinking beer, and having a culinary tour of some of America’s finest junk food. Sitting on a couch eating burgers doesn’t make for very interesting reading, but at one point I did get motivated and book a short trip out to the Grand Canyon to fill in a weekend.

After so much self-exploring in the last couple of months, I decided I was happy to just let someone else make all the decisions. A large coach picked me up from a hotel near my mate’s place (apparently they don’t do residential pickups, only hotels, weird) and we headed east to Hualapai Ranch in Arizona, not far from Las Vegas.

Since the Grand Canyon West is 6 hours away from Los Angeles — and to make a weekend of it — our first night was spent in Las Vegas. but before arriving we stopped in at Ethel M Chocolate Factory on the outskirts of Vegas. The factory was pretty cool and all, but the main attraction for me was actually outside: their cactus garden. I dunno, I guess you’re in the Nevada desert so cacti are everywhere, but I just like looking at funny shaped plants.

I had been to Vegas a few weeks earlier with my buddies, but I’m always keen to head back (in fact I’ve been back twice since this visit and planning one more next year).

And because I’d already taken a stack of photos and seen a lot of the main casinos I didn’t feel the need to walk around with my big DSLR camera, it was quite freeing actually. I classily roamed the streets with one of those giant frozen cocktails you buy and played a bit of blackjack, which is my game of choice in casinos. I spent the night in Harrah’s, which is a really good value hotel if you’re heading there soon.

Important: If you’re visiting the States, make sure you fly to the USA with your ESTA ready.

Checking into the Hualapai Ranch, Arizona

The next day, after a short 2-hour ride from Las Vegas, the bus pulled in to Hualapai Ranch. The ranch is named after the Hualapai Tribe, the natives that own the reservation on which is situated. It is sacred land because so many natives died fighting for it when the American government was taking over. In 1883 they signed an agreement dividing the land because so many people of both sides were dying. The reservations make their own laws that people are subject to. One random example is if you hit a cow while driving the fine is $5000.

The Ranch is in an incredible spot. You are essentially in the middle of the desert and then over in the distance — it couldn’t be more than 2 kilometres away — is a section of the Grand Canyon. The ground is completely flat, and you see just a tiny piece of canyon poking over the horizon. And that’s the view, wherever you are in the ranch. Simply spectacular. No wonder the natives fought so hard for their land.

The ranch itself is set up like an old town from the Wild West, with each of the buildings having the facade of the types of establishments that would have been in the old western days like a bank, a trading post, an undertaker, a dance hall, etc.

We checked in to our rooms and went for a horse-drawn wagon ride. The ride was actually really cool and went for about 20 minutes, but the fun was only just beginning. We met back at the main section of the ranch (not far from the bank) for a ‘cowboy’ show. Which went for about 3 mins and was 2 cowboys getting into an argument about something. Then one guy shot the other guy. Then a girl came over and said he shouldn’t have shot that guy and she shot him. It was pretty funny but was over pretty quickly.

Grand Canyon Skywalk

After that, we got on the bus again for the Skywalk, which was not far away from the ranch. The Skywalk is a clear glass walkway that stretches out over part of the Grand Canyon so you can look directly down into the canyon.

No photo will ever do it justice. It is just, so, big. The Grand Canyon stretches 277 miles in distance, is 4000 feet deep and covers 5 states. Five states! A surprisingly low amount of people actually did the Skywalk. This surprised me at first but to be brutally honest, it was cool, but also a bit gimmicky, and certainly overpriced.

The Grand Canyon is simply stunning from any viewpoint and I’ll take any different view you give me. It was just a shame you can’t take your own camera out though, the guy said the glass was getting so scratched from peoples stuff — probably from bags or people dropping their camera — but it’s probably just so you buy their photo. Because the glass floor is the main attraction, they also make you take off your shoes (fair enough) and wear these hilarious slip on protectors. They looked and felt like a disposable hairnet you might wear, but for your feet.

Back on solid ground, it was actually so hard to get a good photo of the canyon because of epic shadows being cast by the setting sun behind me. It was so bright on the top half, then so dark below the shadow. And because I was a garbage photographer at the time (I like to think I’ve improved somewhat since then), I found it almost impossible to get a good exposure. But as the sun continued to set we moved 5 mins up the road to a different spot to watch the sun go down and once it did the photos came out much better.

This will illustrate how naive I was at the time. I didn’t know much about the Grand Canyon, how best to visit the Grand Canyon, or that there were even different parts of the canyon you could visit. I had in my mind this tour would just be going where everyone went, but I was thinking about the Grand Canyon South Rim, whereas I was obviously at the Grand Canyon West Rim. An incredible experience nonetheless, but not the one I expected. And I’ve since been to the Grand Canyon South once I learnt a little more about it.

We got back for dinner which turned out to be ribs…I don’t know why you would expect anything else at a western style ranch and hot damn, they had the most delicious BBQ sauce and were so tender you could lick all the meat off the bone with a knife and fork and eat it all easily.

During dinner (in the “Dance Hall”), there was a guy up front playing country music, and up back there was a guy standing at what looked like a blackjack table in front of curtains doing card tricks and the like. He was very good he just needed an audience. Cowboy Jackson suggested I go sit there and after I did so, a sizable crowd joined to watch and he started raking in the tips.

Campfire at Hualapai Ranch

After dinner, we had a campfire where we, of course, made s’mores. Cowboy Josh told some jokes and some ghost stories, and by about 8:15 most of the Chinese people had gone to their rooms (oh yeah, I was pretty much the only white guy on the tour and just about the only young person). This left me, Ambika (the exception to the latter) and her parents, who were from India, and Kim (the exception to the former) and her son who were from New Zealand.

Josh was telling us about growing up on the Hualapai Reservation even though he was of the Navahoe tribe. He told us all about their customs and beliefs. For example, he had just moved into his new house about 3 months ago and they are supposed to smoke every corner of every room with sage to keep away the spirits. And since he hasn’t done it yet he says he always sees shadows behind doors and creepy stuff like that. This might freak out most people (if you believe in that), but he said he likes it. Since they are taught from childhood not to fear the spirits he said it keeps him company like a roommate.

Horse Ride to the Canyon’s Edge

In the morning Kim, her son and I went for a horse ride to the edge of the canyon. Going at the walking pace of a horse, it took about 10 mins to get there from the ranch (illustrating how close it really was). This was definitely one of the highlights of the trip. The view was absolutely incredible and one you wouldn’t really be able to have any other way. We literally stood at the canyon’s edge on a horse looking down into it. I was actually a little scared that my horse would for some reason fall or bolt off the side…thankfully he didn’t.

We were all packed and once back from the canyon, we got on the bus straight away as it was waiting for us then set off on the long journey back to Los Angeles. It was just a short trip, but one I’ll never forget.

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