Last night in Flagstaff (elev. 7,000 ft.), the temperature dropped to 26 degrees. Luckily, we were in bed and, when we went out into the morning sunshine, it was already in the low 50s–much nicer.
We drove from Flagstaff to Las Vegas today, which included crossing the Hoover Dam. It’s been many years since we visited Hoover Dam, so we decided to stop again and check it out.
The dam still looks the same, and the water level in Lake Mead is still low, but the café has expanded, the number of visitor tours has expanded, rest rooms have been added along the pedestrian walkway, and the visitor center has its own building. In addition, there are now 12 parking lots, so the number of visitors must have increased greatly. Even at closing time, when we arrived, we had to troll the parking lots to find an empty spot.
The biggest change was the re-routing of US 93. It used to cross the dam; now there’s a new bridge that takes US 93 over the tailrace of the dam. Naturally, security has been added, so we had to stop to let the guards decide that we were not a threat before we could drive to the actual dam. We passed. We arrived too late in the afternoon for a tour, but the parking was free, which saved us $10.
The new Hoover Dam Visitor Center is on the left.
These sculptures have been added on the NV side of the dam. There is also a larger-than-life sculpture of a dam builder working on the dam in a safety harness, but I couldn’t get a good picture of it.
This is the beginning of Lake Mead, the reservoir immediately behind Hoover Dam. The top of the white rock is a high water mark. If I remember correctly from our previous visit, life is good when the water level covers the lower portion of the intake towers on the left. When it’s low like this, there’s a drought going on.
Here’s the selfie of us at Hoover Dam.
This is the new US 93 bridge over the tailrace.