While the Prez and I were in Las Vegas for the Teachers Pay Teachers Conference, we decided to take the 40-minute drive out of the city to see the Hoover Dam. It is named one of the modern wonders of the world and an engineering marvel. It was built during the Great Depression at a time when people didn’t expect modern men to build such a monstrosity.
The Prez and I splurged for the most extensive Dam Tour, which wasn’t cheap at $30 per person, but we were glad we did when those with us on the tour departed after just seeing the Power Plant. While it was huge and impressive, we were most impressed with being able to descend into the actual dam and look out from an air vent, which was more than 6 FEET tall.
The tour guide told us many stories from the dam’s history and the Prez narrated many extra facts for me as we walked inside the many passageways of the dam. Because of his given degree, this was definitely on his Top 10 List of places to visit.
Just downstream of the Hoover Dam is Lake Mead, which supplies water, electric power, and recreation to multiple states in the Southwest including parts of California. It has reached a historic low and is more than 200 feet lower than it was just 40 years ago. In the old visitor center, which is still open, we saw executive memos from a few months ago outlining concerns about the very low lake levels. In the photos, you can see the difference if you look for the white band around the rock walls surrounding the lake.
If you ever get a chance to visit Hoover Dam and it isn’t too far off your path, I highly recommend a visit.
On our way back to the airport, we took the suggested detour through Boulder City, which was originally built for the workers of Hoover Dam. We found a quaint little cafe that didn’t disappoint. After lunch, we walked around and browsed the little antique shops. What did I find that I knew I could fit in my suitcase? Why books of course!
One more tip: Get up early and get to the dam before it opens at 9 a.m. The Complete Dam Tours are only first-come, first-serve and have to be purchased on-site. We we re in the first tour of 20, and then we walked across the dam and looked around outside. As we were leaving around lunchtime, the cars (and people) were pouring into the area.
Many years ago, when I was pregnant with Emily, Bill and I had some plane tickets that were soon to expire. We had no money and we thought to ourselves that Las Vegas would be a good place to go. Cheap hotels, cheap food, and free plane flights, right? I HATED Las Vegas. Everything about it. So, one of the days we rented a car to get OUT of there, and to see something else. So, we headed to the Hoover Damn. It was a beautiful day, and the drive there was pretty. The tour was interesting and it was the BEST day of that trip, for sure! Thanks for the memories. 🙂
Oh, we thought LV was so dark and very sad really. I went only for this specific conference, which is always in Vegas, and if we go next year, we’ll likely bring the whole fam for a Southwest vacation. We won’t be staying in the city if we do that, but will instead bring the camper and stay somewhere outside the city, just me coming into LV for the night before the conference (maybe with the girlies overnight in the fancy hotel!).