Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Viva Las Vegas - part 2, trip to Hoover Dam

We decided we wanted to venture off the Strip and out of the city so we took a Pink Jeep tour to the Hoover Dam and the surrounding area.

The Hoover Dam was constructed between 1931 and 1936 and sits on the border between Nevada and Arizona, daming the Colorado River in order to control floods, provide irrigation water and provide hydroelectric power.



It's absolutely HUGE and I couldn't get it all in one shot.


The hydro plant looks like a tiny toy.


The white ring on the canyon demarks the prior high water mark on Lake Mead. For the past decade, Lake Mead has been experiencing the worst 10 year drought in recorded history and the water level is currently down about 150 feet.


Lake Mead


1 comment:

  1. Your Hoover Dam photos are woonderful! I am sending them on to some friends. We were there with friends - all of the husbands retired engineers. They had some professional connections so we got to have a "behind the scens" sort of tour - it was really something. What a beautiful day it was for your trip the the dam. Picture perfect~~

    Vicki

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