Another sight you generally want to see if you are near Las Vegas is Hoover Dam. So today I have booked on a tour to do just that. The tour started with a short drive around Downtown Las Vegas before heading out towards Hoover Dam.
Lake Mead
The drive to Hoover Dam is around 40 minutes and covers some rather barren countryside. The first sign of the dam that you see though is Lake Mead. Lake Mead is the lake which forms behind the wall of Hoover Dam. Lake Mead is the largest man-made lake within the United States and is a stunning view.
Hoover Dam
There are two different marvels of engineering here and you don’t know which to look to first. One is of course, the Hoover Dam wall itself. The dam wall of Hoover Dam contains 3,250,000 cubic yards (2,480,000 m3) of concrete. The last concrete was poured on May 29th, 1935.
The newest addition to the area is a bridge which is part of the Hoover Dam Bypass Project. It sits around 900 feet above the Colorado River and around 1500 feet downstream from the Hoover Dam wall. The bridge was only opened to traffic a matter of days ago.
Inside The Hoover Dam
Seeing the Hoover Dam is one thing, but seeing some other parts of what the dam does is also interesting. First is a visit to one of the 4 bypass tunnels, each 50 feet in diameter. These tunnels were used to divert the Colorado River during construction of the dam wall. They no longer divert the river, but now house 30 feet diameter intake pipes. These pipes draw water from Lake Mead and direct it to the turbines of the hydroelectric power plant.
Seeing the size of the turbines is quite something as well. They are absolutely huge, and in total between all 17 can generate enough power for 8 million people.
Heading Back To Las Vegas
On the way back from the Dam, the tour driver made two quick stops for us. One at the Lake Mead Lookout which had a spectacular view of Lake Mead.
The second stop was in what appeared to be a park in a suburban area. There was a group of wild Mouflon Sheep grazing here, which was pretty cool to see.
Fremont Street
The last stop for the day was to take a look at Fremont Street. Fremont street is or was the address of many famous Vegas Casinos. Now it is a destination itself, and well during the day a bit like anywhere else in Las Vegas. It would be good to see at night, but I am not sure if there will be time for me to get here.
Today is the last post from me until after the weekend. I have a conference that I will be attending, and doubt I will have time to get out and see much or share much. So I will combine anything I do over the weekend into a post early next week.
