I had been to Las Vegas at least five times prior to this trip and each time, going to the Hoover Dam was a tentative item on the list that got canceled for one reason or another. It was not getting canceled this time. Though, with the issues we had the night before, it was not an early start. I think we only had about 45 minutes to ‘visit’ the dam.
One could argue that the Hoover Dam is no more, and possibly less, impressive than the previously berated Mt. Shmushmore. But, at least there’s some cool technology on display. Parking is kind of a mess, so somewhat by chance we drove over the dam, found a spot on the other side, hopped out of the car and walked around on the dam for a bit, drove back over and up to the new primary traffic bridge above and walked out on that for aerial pictures of the Hoover Dam. I’m not sure how things were before the new bridge, but if traffic across the dam was anything like what it is now as primarily a pedestrian tourist attraction, that had to have been miserable with no bypass.
After checking the Hoover Dam off the bucket list, we headed back to Las Vegas to drop off the car (which was as confusing as reputed to be by others) and head home.
Hoover Dam intake tower - water used to be to the top of those grates.
Lake Mead from the Hoover Dam. You can see just how high the water used to be by the bathtub ring on the rocks.
Hoover Dam
Hoover Dam
Hoover Dam from the new bridge
Hoover Dam from the new bridge
Hoover Dam from the new bridge
Lake Mead panorama
