Las Vegas & Hoover Dam NV

#111 (November 19, 2022): The kids awoke to play in their forts for a bit before today’s adventure in which GuideAlong’s Mr. Dave guided us through the Lake Mead Recreational Area to Hoover Dam and later to the Las Vegas Strip. The Hoover Dam is built on the Colorado River, which serves as the state line between Nevada and Arizona. We parked our truck in the parking lot in Arizona (which is also a different time zone, by the way). As we walked back to Nevada toward the visitor center, we stopped (along with just about everyone else on the sidewalk), straddling these 2 states and 2 time zones, as a parade of 30 or so fancy sports cars (mostly Lamborghinis) drove by one after the other, each adorned with a large black mustache on its front hood. What in the world?! Are we dreaming?! I’ll admit, 2 states, 2 time zones, and 30 mustached luxury cars (at Hoover Dam of all places) in less than 2 minutes seemed like a mini twilight-zone experience. LOL!

Although we had purchased Powerplant Tour tickets online, the tour was temporarily unavailable when we arrived. Evidently, this isn’t that uncommon here. Alternatively, we walked through the exhibit hall, watched a movie of the history and construction of the dam, and then listened to a live narrated slide show of the powerplant explaining how it works. Afterwards, we went outside on the viewing platform to gaze down over the dam.

Hoover Dam was commissioned by the federal government as an attempt to tame the Colorado River, which was prone to unpredictable, devastating, widespread flooding. Today, it generates power for parts of Nevada, Arizona, and California, and provides water for irrigating farm fields in this otherwise desert landscape. The entire building project is quite impressive and more interesting than one may think. Did you know, there is enough concrete in Hoover Dam to build a 4-foot sidewalk around the Earth at the Equator? That amount of concrete should have taken 125 years to cool and set! However, unprecedented methods were designed and used to dramatically shorten that time. Amazingly, the entire project was completed two years ahead of schedule! What?! Yep, the construction continued day and night for five years! Wow! The Hoover Dam is a remarkable civil engineering feat made a reality by the hard work and dedication of thousands of workers during the Great Depression, who only took 2 days off each year! What a testimony and legacy these men left behind!

We briefly drove through the Las Vegas Strip on our route back home. In just a few minutes, we traveled the world, snapping photos of the Eiffel Tower, Statue of Liberty, and Sphinx. The line to the infamous Las Vegas Sign was long, so we snapped a quick picture of it too as we drove by. The kids were eager to get back to our campground before dark; they had seen enough; they weren’t interested in seeing all the Las Vegas lights lit up at night.