Day # 39 - Hoover Dam

Another travel day. We are going from Las Vegas, NV to Williams, AZ. But a couple of things are different about today. First, we have my Mother with us. The second is that we are going by way of Hoover Dam. A good bit of our reasoning for the visit to Las Vegas was so that we could satisfy my jones to see Hoover Dam. So I am hopping today is a good Dam day.

We got out of Vegas without much trouble although having to get my Mom checked out of the casino and all of her luggage into our trailer (How long is her visit for? I didn’t bring this much clothes and I am going for 2-months?) slowed things down more than I had hoped. We arrived at the Security Checkpoint for the Dam crossing and I was prepared for the worst. But I was happily surprised. The officer did the usual small talk to make sure we were “normal” tourists and not someone he needed to be concerned about. I opened up the luggage case on top of the truck for him and he also made a brief inspection inside the trailer. Lastly he looked into all the exterior cargo compartments but did not make me open the totes that are stored on the luggage rack on the back of the camper. All told, we were done in under 15 minutes. Not to Dam bad.

However finding a place to park when you total over 40’ long is another story. Part of the reason to arrive early for a Dam visit is to avoid the overcrowded dam parking lots. So unless you want to pay $25.00 to park in the Dam VIP lot you are going to have to walk down from one of the Dam upper parking lots that are further away. We parked in the second to last lot and had a pretty far walk in the Dam heat. It was 9:30 and it was already 95 Dam degrees.

Once we got down the Dam hill and into the Dam lobby (getting tired of the Dam references yet?) we discovered that we had to pass through a metal detector to get into the Dam visitors center. For years I carried a very small pocket knife on my key chain. I used to use it for all kinds of things, especially when camping. I say I used to…because I don’t have my knife anymore. Apparently, using a 1” blade, I am capable of organizing a flood of Las Vegas or some such Dam thing. So my choices were to walk back up the Dam hill to put my knife in the car or throw it into the Dam trash. So that is twice now that the Dam security measures have hosed me. It’s too bad. I liked that knife.

The tour of the Dam was as interesting as I had hoped it would be. The tour guides were very knowledgeable and answered all of the questions I asked. One thing that I learned is that the Dam’s electricity generating turbines only run at about 30% capacity. That the main function of the Dam is to provide water and flood management and not to generate power. In fact due to the inefficient nature of hydro-electric power and the issues involved in putting drinking water through a turbine, the Dam was never expected to create that much power. Basically they create and sell enough electricity every year to pay for the upkeep of the Dam with no extra funding from the government. Pretty neat huh? The tour included a trip down into the power station to see some of the turbines. There are also several cool interactive displays in the information center including a full-sized cut out of a turbine that you can walk through. I thought this was cool and my Mom and Missy liked seeing for themselves what I had explained to them when we were in the power station.

After the tour we went to the snack bar for some cold treats. Then it was back up the hill to the truck. By this time AJ was very tired and I ended up carrying him up the hill. The temperature was over 100 degrees. Just food for thought: if you are considering a visit to the Hoover Dam in the summer - pay to park in the VIP lot.

After drinking a liter of water it was off to Arizona. It is a steady climb from Vegas to Arizona. I always think of Arizona as being hot and desert like. And Phoenix and the entire southern half of the state are like that. But the northern parts of Arizona are very hilly and the elevation is around 7000 feet so it is usually pretty cool even in July.

We arrived at the Circle Pines KOA in Williams, AZ around 5:00. It is a nice campground with lots of trees. Our site is small, but not much different from most other private campgrounds in resort areas. My Mom rented one of the small camping cabins for her stay. It is cute with a bed, fridge, fan/heater and not much else. I chose this campground because it is smack in the middle of the Grand Canyon and Sedona. Plus it is only 30 minutes to Flagstaff and the amenities of a big city.

It was too late for a run up to the canyon tonight. But that is our plan for first thing tomorrow morning.