Stroll Along A Glass Walkway 918 Feet Above the Ground
Glacier Skyway is Jasper National Park’s newest attraction
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There was still snow on the ground when the Glacier Skywalk opened to visitors in Canada’s Jasper National Park last week. But the ground was over 918 feet below the soles of those visitor’s shoes. They were standing on Canada’s newest tourist attraction—the Glacier Skywalk, a massive U-shaped walkway of steel and glass the juts out over the cliff edge.
From the CBC:
Travel writer Deb Cummings said she’s impressed by the skywalk.
"The aesthetics of it, and the engineering and the architecture — I didn’t think it would be as beautiful as the actual attraction,” she said.
An environmental assessment commissioned by Brewster found little or no impact on bighorn sheep and mountain goats during construction of the skywalk.
Visitors to the attraction pay $23.00 for the privilege of walking out onto a transparent walkway where the treetops are hundreds of feet below. The Skywalk cost over about $19 million (C$21 million) and took two years to build.
Glacier Skywalk joins other attractions that are distinctly not for the height-averse, like the Skywalk at the Grand Canyon or the glass walkway at China’s Tianmen Mountain. These projects haven’t been without controversy (or lawsuits). But they do bring in the tourists, and that’s exactly what Parks Canada wants. They told CNN in a statement that:
"Parks Canada needs to become more relevant to more Canadians by providing services and activities that respond to a broader range of visitor needs and expectations"
Grand opening celebrations for the Glacier Skywalk will take place this weekend, on May 10 and 11.