In the heart of Grand Canyon West is a miniature version of a old
western town called Hualapai Ranch. The Ranch is one of 2
accommodations on the Hualapai Nation and is the only place to stay that
is close to the landmark Skywalk Bridge. The other being the
Hualapai Lodge which is many miles away in the city of Peach
Springs.
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This place
reminds me of the Universal Studios Hollywood Back Lot Tour when they
did the cowboy skit! The roads leading into the Ranch is all
unpaved and access is restricted to normal vehicular traffic.
If you drive out here you must park at the Grand Canyon West Airport to
obtain your pass and take the shuttle buses to Guano Point, Eagle Point,
or the Ranch. There is a great reason to spend the night
here, more on that later.
Let's take a look around
the town. We enter the wagon wheel shaped doors with the horse
shoes on it:
A wagon sits near the
side of the Dance Hall. Can't imagine being from that era and
heading out west in one of these things. Must have been one
heck of a bumpy ride in the desert!
It's hot, Hualapai Ranch is in
Mohave County in the state of Arizona so today it got to over 90
degrees! Here's a layout of the Ranch:
There are different areas of the town with
all kinds of activities for the tours to participate in. Yep,
it's a tourist trap and kinda cheesy but I have to admit it has a
certain charm to it. If you have kids, I'm sure they will get a
kick out of this place, there's a lot for them to run around and
do.
On one end of the Ranch is a functioning
(but simulated) gold mining operation. They have cowboys on
the Hualapai Ranch that demonstrates how it works, visitors can pan for
precious metals!
Back in the day, people
ventured out west to strike it rich by prospecting for gold.
As it was the wild, wild, west, things must have been crazy.
If you found gold, you got to make sure no one steals it so 'claim
jumpers' beware!
The miners
shovel up a scoop of dirt and pour it into the running water.
You take the pan and shake up your pan separating the dirt and rocks
from the minerals and metals. If you're lucky the gold settles
down to the bottom and you get these flakes or nuggets. Sound
easier than it is, unfortunately, we didn't have much
luck.
The have lots of animals around the
Hualapai Ranch, we spotted a goat walking around.
I tried to get a close up
with the billy goat but he slipped through the fence to join the
horses.
Woah, had to stop as I just noticed the
big storage box of dynamite!
The goat keeping an eye
on me...
This area is the horse shoe
toss, didn't know they were that heavy. Reminds me of those
carnival/Circus Circus Vegas games.
Here you can get a shave
and a haircut from Miss Rusty. Plus a bath if you need
one.
Barber's chair waiting
for it's first customer of the day...
The local saloon, Shane's Pour House where you can
get a shot of Whiskey. The have Blue Agave and guano out here
so I'm surprised that they didn't advertise tequila.
or if you can wait, you
can have a free beer:
When I think of an old
western saloon, I always think of the Three Amigos movie where Dusty
Bottoms, Ned Nederlander, and Lucky Day go to Santo Poco and have
perform that 'My Little Butter Cup' song! LOL!
Right outside the saloon
is the setup to learn how to lasso.
Next up is the archery
station. They have recurve bows that you can use to shoot into
the hay barrels.
Of course I spotted these
on the ground and it caught my attention right away...
A bunch of .22 cb caps on
the ground....
Cool, they have a gun
slinging quick draw contest! The plexi glass protects each
other from any blast that may come out of the cb
caps. Fanning a Single Action Army style pistol takes some
getting use to, I'll stick with my high capacity 1911's!
Over in the corner at the
edge of town are the stables. At the Hualapai Ranch, you can
do horse rides and tours depending on how much time you have.
Lots of birds
around. This guy at the top of the barn was chirping
away...
Don't mess around in
Hualapai country, there are severe consequences if you do!
There's a new sheriff in town and homey don't play that:
All the rustlers, town
drunks, and claim jumpers that get caught are taken straight to jail, no
passing GO and collecting $200 in this place.
This place reminds me of
the Mongo scene in Blazing Saddles! LOL
If got something while
panning for gold, we could've headed to the Assay Office and cashed
in.
Yellowhair's Trading Post
is the souvenir shop, they have all kinds of gifts to buy and they have
some beautifully hand crafted Hualapai Native American Indian items and
jewelery. The most interesting for me was the cool Indian
Arrowheads inside the shop. I collect magnets for the fridge
on all the places I visit so I get my usual magnet and souvenir shot
glass.
No phones back then,
messages were sent via telegraph (actually the guest rooms here have no
telephones!). Since we are in the middle of nowhere, power is
generated via electric generators on the premises. Pics of the
cabins can be found in the post below.
Rates and duration for
the horse rides:
They get quite a few
visitors so there are places to sit outside and enjoy the
activities.
Another buggy in front of
the Bank.
I guess if you have a
place to hang someone, you got to have a undertaker. Man,
'This town getting too rough for me'!
The pen area is where the
kids go on the short 15 minute horse rides. I'm not really
into horse rides but if I had more time it would have been cool to go
out on the 3 1/2 hour trip as the cowboys were great at telling stories
and talking about the history of the Hualapai people.
Yep, we took a ride on
the wagon (see pics and video post below )
Next to the horse pen was
the grave year, some of the signs were kinda funny.
I was surprised to see
that they had so many horses in the back area.
Haulapai Ranch Grand Canyon West , Arizona In the heart of Grand Canyon West is a miniature version of a old western town called Hualapai Ranch. The Ranch is one of 2 accommodations on the Hualapai Nation and is the only place to stay that is close to the...
The Dance Hall is where all the action is, everyone in town gathers here for food, drinks, and entertainment. Think of it as the town meeting area. Sine it's 120+ miles from Vegas, I guess they also like poker. How's the saying go? 'Liquor in the front, P...
After our dinner, there was a magician inside the Dance Hall doing all kinds of slight of hand tricks. Found out after talking with Mark Crowe that he performs at the Magic Castle out here in L.A. No wonder, he's very good! A few people gathered around to...
At the stage area on the opposite side of Crowe Illusions was a singing cowboy. It did a cover of Hotel California by the Eagles. I liked it, what do you think of his rendition? -MW ...
A bunch of us jumped on the wagon for a ride aboard the Hualapai Express: Since there were so many people around, they used the larger wagon but the yellow wagon looks more comfy No shocks or suspension but at least we get tires. Can't imagine what ti wou...
As I mentioned before, there is a lot of wild life in the desert. The Hualapai Ranch barns were full of horses... Desert Hares were hopping around the Ranch: This little guy can eat, he mowed down on the greens. Must have been hungry! While these horses l...
Another activity at the Hualapai Ranch is the campfire. The host is a Native American Hualapi who tells stories and some of the history and culture of the Hualapai tribe. Later on the cowboys show up and they play music and also tell some of their stories...
On the Hualapai Ranch, they have 28 cabins all in a arc, facing the east towards the Grand Canyon Rim. Very simple accommodations out here... All rooms are non smoking! Some decorations in the rooms: It gets hot out in Arizona so they have a ceiling fan.....
It's early, as in 4:30am early! Still dark outside... The staff goes around and knocks on the doors for the wake up call. You can sit outside the cabin's porch and take it all in. -MW ...
After a long day and getting a few hours of sleep, we wake up so that we can enjoy the main reason for staying over night at the Hualapai Ranch. The sunrise! The views were breathtakingly spectacular! Each cabin is designed to face the Grand Canyon West r...
I loved it all, only things missing were Colt 0.45 Peacemakers, baked beans and coffee around the fireplace :-) and rustic cigars :-) Gorgeous Sunrise pics, loved the wide open skies and clouds. Looking forward to your next part :-) S
It's Indian Reservation/Federal land so no concealed weapons permit for a Colt SAA! The sunrise was just amazing, all those colors were appearing as the sun came up. Thanks for looking! -MW
Appreciate you looking! The place looks empty (and closed) because it was 7am when I walked around the faux town! After viewing the sunrise we headed to the Town Hall for breakfast. As we stayed overnight, we had the whole place to ourselves as tourists c...
Thanks for the compliments, glad you like them dreamer. I don't really do much post processing so it was my first attempt at stitching for the panorama. It was tricky timing the GoPro for some of the vids, I got a new toy/acessory so I'm learning how to u...
Happy to hear you enjoyed the pics and vid, thanks for looking! The Grand Canyon has 3 main areas: The South Rim, North Rim, and West Rim. Each is different and unique in it's own way. The Grand Canyon West is popular as it's close to Vegas but it's often...
why u were up at 7am ! Ungodly ! Ming, strongly urge u get a GND filter kit ! U will love the sunrise/sunsets even MORE ! Mesmerizing views ! Looks like I have to make a trip when I visit my sister in San Jose !
Went to bed around 1am, up at 4am then started to take pics and video of the sunrise at 4:30am and then went to breakfast around 6am. Shot the faux town around 7am. I looked into GND and CP, B+W makes a super thin XS-Pro Kaesemann CP that I thought about ...
Great report DRMW, I've been to the Grand Canyon many years ago but never with such wonderful things to do at Hualapai Ranch, and that sunrise is awesome! Will have to add it to my bucket list of places to revisit. Regards, ED-209
Thanks ED-209, the South Rim is much nicer but this place is still awesome. If you do the heli from Vegas, they don't get there early enough for the sunrise and leave before the sunset so make sure you plan for the overnight at the Hualapai Ranch so that ...
What an effort composing such post really amazed. Grand Canyon is No 1 on my wife place to see wish list so I'll show here post and take money for watch :) Thank you Best D
It took a while to do the vids glad you liked the report! Grand Canyon West is different than the National Park. If you are in Vegas and have limited time, then this is the closest. The Grand Canyon National Park is further away but much more spectacular....