Hoover Dam and Laughlin, NV (Staurday, August 13th, 2016)

After a few days in the sun, we decided it would be a good idea to take a break from boating.  We gave the kids a long list of choices, and they chose to go see the Hoover Dam.  We left fairly early so that we could make a day of it.  The first thing we did after we parked, was walk across the road on top of the dam.  It gave us great views of both sides of the dam.

The large concrete towers are the intake towers for the hydro-electric plant that is in the dam

Looking back at Lake Meade from the Hoover Dam

The white line on the rocks above the water is the high-water mark that the lake reached during the floods of 1983.  The over-flow spill ways flowed for 63 continuous days as the dam released the flood waters into the Colorado River below.

The bridge in the back ground is highway 93, which replaced the road over the dam about 10 years ago

Looking down from the Hoover Dam to the Colorado River below

Once we looked at the dam from the outside, we headed in where it was nice and cool to enjoy a tour from the inside.  

The story of the Hoover Dam is pretty amazing, considering that the planning for it started at the turn of the 20th century.  At this point the Bureau of Reclamation came up with the plan for the dam, to tame the Colorado River during flood times and to provide water and hydroelectric power for the developing southwest.

Before creation of the dam, in 1905 the Colorado River flooded and broke through a series of irrigation canals, and created the Salton Sea in southern California.  

As the great depression unfolded in the early 1930's, men descended upon the area in hope of a chance to work on construction of the dam.  They eventually moved to Boulder City, NV, a community that was built specifically to house the dams workforce.

The first step of construction involved blasting the canyon walls to create four diversion tunnels.  These tunnels would funnel the water out of the Colorado river, so the dam could be built.  

The first step of our tour took us 57 stories down, into the Hoover Dam.  Here they showed us the original diversion tunnels.  These tunnels are 56 feet (17 meters) in diameter.  There were four diversion tunnels in total, two on the Arizona side of the river and two on the Nevada side.  Their combined length was nearly 16,000 ft, or more than three miles (5 kilometers).

The next picture shows the diversion tunnels on both sides of the dam that we used to reroute the water from the Colorado River while they were building the dam.

Walking through the tunnels inside the Hoover Dam.

Our next stop on the tour was to see the turbines that create the hydroelectric power.  The room that the turbines are housed in is the length of two football fields.  There are eight turbines in total, but they don't always run at the same time.  You can tell they are running if the yellow light on top of them is on. Our guide told us that the water goes through the turbines at an amazing 86 mph!

Once we finished our tour of the diversion tunnels and turbines, we headed to the exhibition all, and the terrace that overlooks the dam. The dam is really spectacular from this angle.  

Steve is in the blue shirt heading back to get the car while the rest of us continue to look through the museum.

As we headed down the road, we took one final look at lake Meade.

We stopped to get some snacks because we were all starving, and then made our way toward Laughlin, NV.  The scenery coming into Laughlin is really beautiful!

Laughlin is a small gambling town on the border of Arizona and Nevada

Our first stop in Laughlin was In-N-Out Burger!  It was 4:00 by now and we still hadn't had any lunch.  But this made it worth the wait!



Then off to explore the river walk, or least we thought.  It was about 115 degrees out, so we thought the river walk would be nice, but when we got there it was closed because the river was too high. Bummer!  But we enjoyed our time anyway.

And then back to Lake Havasu City for a little Weinerschnitzel later that night as our daughter's boy friend had never experienced it before!  Not the healthiest food today...but it was fun!  

Ok maybe a lot of Weinerschnitzel.

We had a great day learning a little Hoover Dam history, and enjoying a road trip through Arizona, Nevada and California.

Later that night we all ended the evening with our friends Tim and Cheryl and Brian and Kathy just hanging out and talking.