I recently hiked & camped the grand canyon into Supai Indian Reservation which was 10+ miles down into the canyon......Airwest has a contract with the tribe there.....i injured my leg while hiking and couldn't hike out so I was told to come back the next morning to sign up for a ride out.....I had to hike another 2 miles to the camping area and hike the 2 miles back out up a steep hill which took over 2 hours for me to hike back to the helicopter sign up area.......I got there at 8:15am and the 2 guys in the village that sign you up for the helicopter said it would be about 2 hours for my turn to get out....the one guy said that my pack would go with me free of charge (it was a small, about 25 pound pack).....but later, the other guy tried to make me pay $20 extra in cash for my small camelback which held 1 liter of water......I complained and said the first guy said my stuff was included in the price I paid and 4 other people who were waiting stood up for me and agreed with me.........so the guy yelled at me to go sit out of the way.......so I went to sit in the shade expecting it would be about 2 hours..........I kept watching people come and go and noticed that they kept taking the local village people ahead of the people who were paying........after waiting 3 hours, I went to the guy and asked when it would be my turn and I was in severe pain due to my injury.....he said not long......so I went to wait again......another hour went by.....I went again to the guy and he just ignored me, he sat there and acted like he didn't hear me even though no one else was next to him.....he was a complete "ass hole" and I was stuck there......overall, I had sat there for 6 hours before I finally left on a horse......one of the tourists said that he was picking on me because I didn't pay him the extra $20 cash.....as I got to the parking area near my car, I had to drive another 2 hours before I got to a medical clinic.....of course it was closed!
I will NEVER go back to Supai, Az or support them in any way (the locals there also abuse the work animals and starve them once unfit for work), nor will I recommend Airwest Helicopters. read more