The Dang's: Travel Tuesday

I'm slowly continuing the recap of our Vegas trip. Today is Hoover Dam, which is funny because we just saw Transformers on TV over the weekend, and a lot of the first movie takes place at Hoover Dam, which I hadn't remembered.

We had another busy day in store for us, so we left the hotel by 8:15. It was about a 45 minute drive to Hoover Dam. On the way, we passed by Lake Mead which offered some lovely views from the road.

Getting to the Visitor's Center at the Hoover Dam was a little tricky as nothing was labeled very well, but we found our way there. The Visitor's Center opened at 9, we got there around 9:30. The line to get through the airport like security was nice and short at that time.We opted for the 1 hour Dam Tour, as opposed to the 30 min PowerPlan Tour. It sounded good in theory, but in reality it was not worth the extra $19 per person. Our tour guide was awful, and more interested in talking about himself and lamenting that "kids these days don't care about history" than actually telling us about the Hoover Dam. It was extremely frustrating.

We started our visit with a short ten minute video about the making and history of Hoover Dam. Since we had about 20 minutes to burn before our 10:15 tour, we went upstairs to the Observation Deck. This was our first real glimpse of the dam, and it was really neat. The thing is massive! The thing that surprised me about the place is that there are power lines everywhere. It's not exactly pretty, rather very industrial.

Then we joined up with our tour group and awful tour guide, Bob. We waited at the elevator for the Powerplant Tour group to meet with us, and then all squeezed in. We descended 530 feet and exited into a tunnel that was drilled in the 1930s for construction. From there, we walked to the Penstock Viewing Platform. This platform is on to one of the 30-feet wide pipes that transport water from Lake Mead to the dam's hydroelectric generators. Standing there, could feel the water rushing underneath you.

We got back on the elevator, and took it up to the powerplant balcony on the Nevada side. From here, we could see 8 of the dam's 17 generators. They were huge!

At this point, the tour split up with the PowerPlant group departing, and our smaller 20 person Dam Tour group rejoining Bob. Joy.

The extra part of the tour was the Inspection Galleries. We made our way through many tunnels,

peeked out of an air vent over the dam,

looked at some stairs that run the length of the dam (in case of emergency/unavailable elevators), and listened to Bob talk about linguistics and anything and everything EXCEPT the dam. Like I said, we saw some cool things and I'm sure the Dam Tour would have been fascinating with a good guide. For us, it was just disappointing.

We ended at the top of the dam. We strolled along the walkway and took lots of pictures.

photo by Adam

I was surprised at how large the intake spillways were. They are designed to prevent flooding of the dam in case of high water on Lake Mead. We could see fish in them, which was quite exciting to Adam.

photo by Adam

We also took lots of photos of the Intake Towers as they are perhaps the most picturesque aspect of Hoover Dam.

There's Adam taking the shot below!

photo by Adam

We even crossed into Arizona! Interestingly, it was a different time on the Arizona side than it was in Nevada. Arizona is in the Mountain Time Zone, while Nevada is in the Pacific Time Zone. To add to the confusion, Arizona does not use Daylight Savings Time.

The plan was to go back to the Visitor Center to check out the displays, but the line to get through security was huge, so we skipped it. Instead, we grabbed a bite to eat and sat out in the sun admiring the dam. Back at the car, we decided to drive across the dam with the convertible top down. This was well worth the time!

By the time we left Hoover Dam at 12:45, the line of cars to get in was backed up almost all the way to the highway. So it was definitely worth it to go right away in the morning. That line could take hours.

Our next adventure was to drive along Lake Mead on the way to Valley of Fire State Park.

A little history on the Hoover Dam -

It was built to manage the water supply and make it available year round. To make it fair for the seven states it covered, the 1922 Colorado River Compact divided the Colorado River Basin into an upper and lower half with half of the river's annual flow alloted to each basin. The states in each basin then had to divide it amongst themselves.

Congress passed the Boulder Canyon Project Act in 1928 allowing for the construction of Hoover Dam. Construction began in 1931, and it was completed two years ahead of schedule (and under budget!) in 1935. Lake Mead is the dam's reservoir, and is the largest man-made reservoir in the world. Hoover Dam generates hydroelectric power for Nevada, Arizona and California. Yearly, it generates more than 4 billion kilowatt-hours. The sale of this power has repaid the original $165 million cost + interest of the dam's construction. It's self reliant, as revenues from the power continue to pay for the operation and maintenance of the plant.

Day 3: Friday, November 24

We took a lot of photos this day, you know I love my National Parks, so this will have to be a two parter.

We got up around 8 and got ready. We got on the road at 9:20. I enjoyed all the southwestern scenery while Adam concentrated on driving.

After about an hour, we stopped in Pahrump to pick up some snacks, water and sandwiches for lunch in the park. We arrived in the outskirts of Death Valley National Park at 11:20, so it was a two hour drive from Vegas. We ended up spending about 4.5 hours in the park.

It was Adam's first visit to California!!! I may have sang the "California" theme song from The O.C. to him a few times....

Our first stop was at Dante's View. The road up there was quite steep and kind of scary (I thought at least). Towards the top, there was a 15% incline.

From the top, 5,475 feet up, there was a panoramic view of the southern portion of Death Valley. It was kind of a hazy day, but the view was still lovely. And windy.

We had our sandwiches while enjoying the overlook.

Apparently this view can be seen in Star Wars (the first movie) with the city of Mos Eisley located in the center of Death Valley.

Our next stop was at Zabriskie Point. It was a short hike up to the point, which offered a view of the badland-esque landscape.

We enjoyed just sitting and relaxing here. By then it was about 80° out.

Then it was on to Badwater, which was a bit of a drive from Zabriskie Point.

Badwater is the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere at 282 feet below sea level, and one of the hottest.

The sodium chloride pool is all that remains of the lake that used to occupy the valley floor. It's also how the spot got its name as early explorers couldn't get their animals to drink from it, hence "badwater."