Hoover Dam and Lake Mead

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After a simply horrific night’s sleep, with left this beautiful desert campsite and headed south for the Hoover Dam. There was a security point that all vehicle needs to stop for, and because we have a car top carrier and cargo rack, they pulled us over for a search. The road leading to the dam drives right over the top of it. We parked and walked over to the dam and saw the Colorado River on our left meandering into the dam and two towers each with a gigantic clock. One read “Nevada Time” the other “Arizona Time”. I didn’t realize that the dam lied in two states. Another curious thing was the clocks both read the same time? Dave explained that Arizona does not observe daylight savings time.

On the right was the huge wall of the Hoover Dam. It stands 750 feet tall. We walked from one end to the other, right through two states. Dave was really impressed with the dam, having seen it on the Discovery and History channels on television. One comment was however, “I thought it would be much bigger.” I guess everything looks bigger n TV.

We then headed north through Lake Mead Recreation Area. We saw several lovely spots along the lake - Lakeview Overlook, Boulder Beach and Saddle Island. Dave was not impressed with the Lake but when the park road left the lakeside he was impressed with the scenery. He remarked at how different the landscape was from state to state. I told him that he would find the landscape of Utah and it’s National Parks all different from each other, all within the same state. I saw today where it called this area the Great Circle. Twelve unique Parks in a circle - and we should hit most of them.

We left the park and arrived in Overton and had salads for lunch at McDonald’s. Soon thereafter, we found our way to Interstate 15 and headed out of Nevada, drove about 30 miles in Arizona and arrived in Utah. We lost an hour crossing over the Utah border and are once again in Mountain Time. We left the highway and got on Route 9 and drove until we reached Zion National Park around 4:30 pm. We set up camp in the South Campground, had supper on the grill and then set about for a walk around the area. We watched a movie before bedtime in our outdoor theater - the computer on the picnic table.

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Photos

Colorado River at the dam
Notice the high water marks on the rocks

Campsite in Boulder Beach
Our beautiful but extremly hot desert campsite

Hoover Dam
the wall is 750 feet deep - couldn't fit it all in to photo

Beautiful lake Mead
Wires are everywhere near the Hoover Dam