No trip to Las Vegas is complete without a tour of Hoover Dam. It was one of the last things on our list to do in the Las Vegas area. Unfortunately, trips into the dam are still canceled due to COVID, but the new exhibits area and the film were still open. We drove down Boulder Highway and through the historic town of Boulder. The town was built in the early 1930s to house the workers and their families for the dam construction. The downtown area has some beautiful art deco buildings. As we approached the dam, we had to stop at a security checkpoint where they inspected the truck. David even had to get out and open the bed cover for inspection. After the security checkpoint, we stopped at the new bridge that was built to divert traffic away from the dam. We walked out on the pedestrian walk for some magnificent views of the Hoover Dam and Lake Mead beyond. We then drove down to the new (at least new since David was there in the 80s) parking garage. We were surprised when they told us our truck was too big for the garage and we would have to cross the dam and park on the other side. After finding parking appropriate for the Behemoth, we walked back across the dam taking time to enjoy the beauty of this awesome project. Lake Mead is currently at a historically low level. We went into the new exhibit hall and watched a film on the building of the dam from 1931 to 1935 (it finished 2 years early and $15 million under budget) during the height of the depression. We then saw a presentation on what we would have seen inside the dam if tours were running, then had time to explore the exhibits. We strolled back across the dam to the Behemoth (on the Arizona side) and planned to take the road to US93 in Arizona to drive back on the new bypass but were surprised to find the road was closed! The only way to get down to the dam now is from the Nevada side. We stopped at a gift store on the Arizona side so we could get some postcards where we learned the road was closed to through traffic due to the threat of attack following 911. What a world we live in, Pandemics and terrorists.
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| View of Hoover Dam from the Tillman Bypass Bridge |
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| Front face of the dam |
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| Back face of the dam from the exhibit hall |
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| The new Tillman Bypass |
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| Front face of the dam with the water entrances for the hydro-electric plant |
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