| Driving down from Las Vegas towards Boulder City a large lake
comes into view where the waters of the Colorado are controlled by the
Hoover Dam. Built in the 1930s this was regarded as one of the modern
wonders of the world. |  |
 | The road down to and
across the dam is under reconstruction although the new road will go over a
brideg and not the top of the dam as the current road does.. |
| The power generators powered by the the water behind this dam
create large amounts of electricity which is controlled by switch stations
such as this one.. |  |
 | There are few places
where the dam can be seen in a way where you can appreciate its huge size. |
| There is a large new visitor centre and this is the view from the
roof. |  |
 | These towers are the
filters for the water inlets to the generators. There are two on the Nevada
side and two on the Arizona side. 19% of the electricity goes to Nevada, 25%
to Arizona and the rest to California.. |
| The white line is like a tide mark showing just how low the lake
is below the peak. |  |
 | There are huge bypass
tunnels for use if the water does reach the top of the dam. They have been
tested but have never been used in earnest. |
| The dam was built between 1931 and 1935 as this plaque on the
side of the old visitor centre. |  |
 | There are 8 huge
generators on the Nevada side and 9 on the Arizona side. There was an
excellent informative guided tour. |
| This is the Arizona powerhouse from the top of the visitor centre
which is virtually on top of the Nevada house. |  |
 | This is
the outflow from the generators letting the water flow downstream. There is
significant turbulence down there. The 'little' box on the cliff side with
six holes is the outlet for the Arizona overflow tunnels. There is a
matching set on the Nevada side for the matching tunnels.. |
| The old visitor centre holds a model of the Colorado river
showing all the water control systems in place covering the seven states the
river flows through. This system drains most of the western USA.. |  |
 | After visiting the dam
we drove around the northern edge of the lake as we headed away from Las
Vegas towards Mesquite on the first part of our trip towards Zion National
Park. |
| There were stops along the way at one of which we spotted this
local resident hiding in the heat of the day. |  |
|