Hoover Dam

At least part of my family always feels the urge to do something during vacations. To spend a day just hanging out is not a vacation day apparently. Since the only thing my daughter asked for during the whole trip was a visit to her favorite bookstore in Las Vegas (The Writer’s Block) and a shopping stop at Fergusons, we started with that.
The Writer’s Block is a small independent bookstore with a cafe area in the front. It’s a little cramped and has lots of decorations hanging from the ceiling like marionettes, mobiles and bird houses. There is even a bunny. I love it.
Fergusons is a shopping area filled with little artsy shops and a cafe. It has a cool truck sculpture at the entrance and the building used to be a hotel back in the day. It’s a quick visit and parking is easy in both locations.

Next we headed out of the city to visit Hoover Dam. It’s about an hour east of the city and in my opinion worth the drive. We have been a couple of times already but the size of the dam always leaves me breathless. First time we went in 2007 when we did a roadtrip through the National Parks and after that when the kids were maybe 4 and 6. Make sure you get of the highway in time or you end up driving over the very impressive Mike O’Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge. Especially my husband was very concerned about it since he is not fond of heights. Right before you get to the dam there is a parking lot that leads to a pedestrian access up to the bridge. No-one wanted to come along and I did not want to go alone so this is left for another day. I imagine the view of the dam and the Colorado river being quite magnificent. Parking in the garage is $10. You can also buy your tickets for the dam online and I was a little concerned that we would not get in because it would only let me buy tickets for the following day but it turned out not to be a problem as we were able to buy tickets onsite. Just the visitor center is $10 for an adult and if you add a short movie and dam tour (what is 1 hour total) it is $15. There is also a longer tour but it was already booked out for the day.
The movie talks a bit about the history of the dam and the tour takes you a couple stories down inside the dam itself.

You get to see one of the pipes which carries the water to the turbines and the turbines on the Nevada side. Afterwards you get to explore the visitor center on your own and walk around the dam outside.

It actually sits right at the border of Nevada and Arizona and the time zone line. There is one tower with a clock on the Nevada side and one with a clock that shows an hour later on the Arizona side. The kids were very impressed.

Water levels in Lake Mead are pretty low currently. It was already low in 2007 when I visited the first time but it is even lower now. I still remember how surprised I was that the color difference in the rock surface is so obvious.

Another thing that always surprises me is how openly proud American’s are of their achievements. I don’t mean this in a bad way. It’s just that Germans tend to be more critical of themselves. You definitely leave realizing what an architectural marvel and great achievement the dam was. I love the resources that are so often provided through American sights and parks. I found the kids facts quite interesting myself and there is a whole learning package I only discovered after the fact.

In the end we all had a really good dam day (with lots of dam jokes). I was almost a little sad driving back to Las Vegas. I love roadtrips and was ready to head further but that has to wait until the next vacation.

How do you feel about roadtrips? Any places you visited multiple times?