Grand Canyon skywalk... NOT!!!

So. I had planned to go to the Grand Canyon skywalk since before I left Australia. I'd seen a documentary on the making of the skybridge and it looked like a great experience and was one of the main reasons that I made the trek out west. I'd checked out their website and it was only US$29.95 for a ticket so that was pretty reasonable and I thought it would be worth a look. When I got to Vegas most of the tour brochures said that it was a 2 hour drive out of Vegas, well it was more like 3 thanks to 15 miles of unpaved road which put another inch of dust on my already dirty car. 

At the end of the road I was greeted by a guy who told me to park anywhere and proceed inside what looked like a massive tent to get tickets and meet up with the shuttle bus that would take me to the bridge. OK. Parked, went inside to find a massive gift shop and eventually I found the ticket counter and asked for a ticket. The lady proceeded to tell me that it would cost $40 to get into the park, $8 impact fee and the bridge fee would be $32 so it would cost a "minimum" of $76 to get inside to the skywalk. WTF??????? AND not only that but I could not take my own camera or photos and I'd need to leave my bag and cell phone here and hire a locker for an additional fee. WTF??????????????????????????????????????????????  I walked off.

"Minimum"? Does that mean that when you get out there you're gonna be slugged with a $10 foot covering fee (cuz you need those to walk on the glass walkway according to the documentary) and other misc charges while you're out there????????? 

I was devastated. I found out later on the website that the resident Native Americans had forcibly taken control of the bridge as of Feb 7 2012 and this was now being fought out in court. Not only that but I could purchase ONE of their professional photos for $30 or a USB stick with several photos for $107!!!!!! I had been looking forward to this all trip long just to find out all of that bullshit that I actually cried. Yeah yeah I'm a sap but I haven't been this disappointed in a long long looooong time. So the below photos from the carpark are as close as I got to it before jumping in the car and driving to the next town which was not where I'd intended to be as the drive to and from the canyon took longer than expected.