Andre and Wendy: Hoover Dam, Valley of Fire

Today all the others are doing the hop on hop off bus tour, we are off to Hoover Dam and places beyond. We wanted to do the full tour, and with the change in time had no problem getting to Hoover Dam to line up for at 8:45 for the tour. The full tour takes only 20 people per tour, and we had read that there could be 4 tours ahead of you booked up. A lot of bus tours from Vegas come here, but since you cannot book the full tour online or for a large group we decided it was best for us to try to just go on our own rather than the bus tour the rest of the group was doing later in the week.

We were able to get on a 10:30 tour, timing worked out great. There is a good movie in the exhibition area, and lots of information to read about, so we had lots of time to look around. The tour took us through the Power Plant, and then on to the full tour including going inside an elevator within the dam itself. The elevators are quite small, really a tight squeeze for 20 people, and the backspaces reminded us of the backspaces at the Banff Springs Hotel. A very interesting tour. The Dam does not cost the gov’t any money, it is self sufficient, wouldn’t it be nice if all agencies could run this way? The Dam was also completed 2 years ahead of schedule, this really stuck out to me, is this even possible now to complete anything ahead of schedule? Funny thing on the tour is we ran into the couple that we saw in Toronto and again at the car rental were on the tour.

After our tour we stopped at a lookout spot that you can walk across the O’Callaghan/Tillman memorial arch bridge for some fantastic views of the Dam. It is impressive at the Dam itself, but I think even more impressive looking down at it from the bridge.

We are going on a DAM tour

Hoover Dam

Our guide Darren (if you like the tour) otherwise it's Bob. We heard this line a few times this week

50 foot pipe to carry water to the turbines to make electricity

Turbines room

Tunnels design for public

All done in Art Deco style

Ventilation shaft, not high enough for me to stand up straight

View from the end of the shaft

Tiny crack in the cement, but no worries we were told, SURE!

Good thing the elevator did not fail

View from the top of the dam looking towards the new bridge

Lake Mead. Water levels are way down, turbines were running at 50%

View of the dam from the new windy bridge

Following our visit around the Dam we went on to Valley Of Fire, a State Park in Nevada. To get there we drove around a lot of Lake Mead, which is the lake created by the Dam. Some really pretty views, it is really a recreational lake, with quite a few boats and fishing.

Valley of Fire had lots of beautiful red sandstone formations that were created starting back in the dinosaur age. Lots of little pullouts to explore and do some short walks, we were not up to any long hikes, it was hot hot hot.

Drive by shooting, dry river bed

Followed this old camper for a while before we found a passing lane

Elephant rock


Petrified Tree

Dry river bed again

historic cabins were built with Valley of Fire sandstone by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in the 1930’s for travelers.

Petroglyphs (rock carvings) by ancient Indians

One of the canyon we went for a walk in. lots of sand here

Arch Rock

lots of rocks formations looked like people or animals etc...

Cactus in bloom

Dust storm in the distance.

We arrived back in Las Vegas in time to meet everyone for supper. Tonight we went to the Kahunaville restaurant, another groupon used. This restaurant is inside Treasure Island, we were sorry to see that the Pirate show is no longer going on.

We did get to see the volcano erupt outside the Mirage. We then moved on to tour the beautiful botanical gardens at the Bellagio resort. So very impressive, I wish the Front Desk at the Banff Springs had looked something like this. This is also the first of many times that we will see the fountains here as well.