12th August 2016 - Las Vegas NV - Kms to date 11,214

Kms today 403

We decided to get out of Las Vegas and after a very meagre Travelodge brekkie, we set off for the Hoover Dam.  It was quite close near Boulder, the town that was built to house the workers building the dam. After a false turn that took us to the Boulder golf club we found our way to the dam. It had a large multi-level car park and well organised guides to take you through the dam.

Hoover Dam 220m high.





The Hoover dam was named after President Hoover who sponsored the dam to control flooding and provide water for irrigation and electric power. It was built in  the 1930's and employed 1000s of men over 6 years. The first task was to tunnel through the walls of the canyon to provide diversion for the Colorado river. These four tunnels were 50ft in diameter to cope with the river flow and were later used for spillway and penstocks. Many men died in the tunnels and they took years to complete.  Then the dam started.  It is a gravity arch concrete dam which is 100m deep at the base and 15m deep at the crest and 220m high with 6 million tonnes of concrete. They developed a chilling plant to pump cold water through the fresh concrete to keep it cool and allow faster pouring rates.
Our tour took us down to the diversion tunnels and then to one of the power stations.


Colorado River Canyon with high level Arch Bridge.

There are 7 units in each power house which produce 140 MW each giving a total of 2 GW. Only 3 were running.

Generator Hall.

We had great views of the dam and the canyon. After lunch we headed 100 miles further east to the West Rim of the Grand Canyon in the Hualapai tribal lands. They have set up in competition to the National Park. We parked at the ticket office and took a bus. Their trump card is a Skywalk over the Canyon 4,000ft below. We passed on that  and took in the views from the canyon rim instead. They were spectacular of course and the canyon was terraced down to the brown Colorado river 1000s ft below. The other attraction of West Rim was the helicopter flights through the canyon. We could see the helicopters flying below us.

1,200 m deep Grand Canyon West Rim.

Colin overlooks the Grand Canyon heading towards the Hoover Dam 150km away.



We drove back to Las Vegas in the late afternoon and stopped in Boulder for dinner. Alan was keen to get some playing cards for Jackie that had been used in the casinos. These packs are in perfect condition but have corners cut off and are marked with dye on the edge. He found them in the casino next door, Circus Circus which is probably the next in line to be demolished.