Tuesday’s planned activity was a visit to Hoover Dam. We towed
the Escape across the top of the dam, found free parking, had some quick sandwiches
inside the camper and then toured inside the dam and the visitor center.
 |
| Hoover Dam on the Lake Mead side |
If you
visit here, get ready for plenty of dam jokes, such as “Hi, my name is Susan.
I’m not your tour guide for today, I’m just your dam elevator operator.”
 |
| Nevada-side turbines |
Our tour (the cheaper version at $11) took us
inside one of the four diversion tunnels, each 50 feet in diameter, which were cut
through the walls of the canyon to re-route the Colorado River in advance of construction
of the dam. We also got to see the tops of the Nevada-side turbines, which I
enjoyed at a certain level of ignorance, but which were hot stuff to Tall Son
and Great Husband, who are both engineers.
As for me, the human side of the
construction of the dam was of more interest, such as learning the job titles
of the workers, including Mucker, Flunky, and Easy-Dough (boss).
There is a great viewing area on top of the visitor center,
but even better views if you walk up on top of the new Pat Tillman and Mike
O’Callaghan Memorial Bridge, designed by HDR of Omaha.
 |
| Hoover Dam seen from the new bridge |
 |
| Get those dam tourists out of the way so we can see the Escape! |
We camped the night at a beautifully landscaped campground
in Lake Mead National Recreation Area. Due to drip irrigation, every site had
flowering trees in pink, white, or red. The guys took a swim in Lake Mead,
which they described as clear, but very cold.
 |
| Camping at Lake Mead National Recreation Area |
No comments:
Post a Comment