Hoover Dam

What a difference a day makes.  We got a good night’s sleep.  Up at 6:00 am, we got ready for a day at the Dam.  I took care of the dogs and by 7:30 am we (the Bootles and Chandlers) were off to Pepe’s Taco Restaurant for breakfast burritos.  We ate breakfast and headed to the Hoover Dam about 30 miles east of our location.

Getting there early was recommended by the Hoover Dam website.  The Dam Tour wasn’t running but the Power Generator Tour was.  We got our tickets and followed the directions to the start of the tour.  First a brief movie of the dam concept and dam construction, then we were herded in an elevator and taken down some 600 feet to the generator room on the Nevada side.  Apparently, there is a generator room on the Arizona side as well.

Generators

We learned that the generators produce electricity for residential and commercial customers as far as Yuma, AZ and Los Angeles, CA.  The hydropower facility produces just over 4 billion kilowatt-hours a year.  Income from the sale of electricity makes the whole project self-sustaining.

I asked how many died in the construction of the dam.  My morbid sense I guess.  The dam guide told us 96 men lost their lives building the dam.  And none are buried in the concrete.  That rumor is a “dam lie”.

After the tour, we walked from the Nevada side to the Arizona side of the dam.  The size of the structure is awesome.  Lake Mead’s water is pristine.  On the way back, we stopped at the “old exhibit” for another presentation of the project.  This one focused on the reason for damming the Colorado River.  The river had a history of drought and flood periods.  This was devastating to towns downstream.  By building the dam, the Colorado River was “tamed”.  Water flow could be controlled downstream allowing irrigation for more than a million acres of some of America’s richest crop lands and nearly half a million acres in Mexico.  It also meets the water needs of 20 million people in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Diego, and other southwestern cities, towns and Indian communities in AZ, NV and CA.

We scoped out the gift shop.  Bought nothing and headed back to the car for a picnic lunch.  It was too hot to have a picnic so we sat in the air conditioned car and talked about what we learned and saw.  After lunch, it was time to take the walk to the Hoover Dam bypass Bridge or Colorado River Bridge.  The bridge was completed in 2010 allowing east west traffic to bypass the two lane switchback road leading to and crossing over the dam.  It’s the bridge we took yesterday over the Colorado River.  The view of the dam and Lake Mead from the bridge was spectacular.  I’m so glad we had a clear day.  Ed and I walked to the apex of the bridge and started back to meet with Peg and Terry.

Lake Mead and Hoover Dam from the Bridge

This evening we went out to celebrate Peggy’s Birthday.  We ate at Red Lobster, one of Peggy’s favorites.  After dinner, Ed drove us up and back down Las Vegas Boulevard better known as “The Strip”.  It was amazing how many people were out on a 90 degree night.  We also found the old Las Vegas Strip.  The contrast between the old and new is a telling sign of the times.

We got back to the campground around 9:45 pm, said our good nights and went to our respective coaches.