The Hoover Dam is one of the USA’s most spectacular engineering destinations. It was built in an era when jobs were needed to pull the nation out of the lack of employment of the Depression. Men died putting in the structure and they are respectfully commemorated on the Nevada side of the river.
The view is not as majestic as it once was a few years back. Lately the water level in Lake Mead (the lake formed by the dam) has been intentionally lowered in favor 
of other reservoirs so now there is a white rim around the lake that looks to be 15 feet or so wide. The look on the other side is quite impressive though since you can really get a great impression on how deep Lake Mead really is (check out the picture to the right that came from Wikipedia). Your children will be tempted to try to roll pennies down the side of the slope and I guess that is okay but they won’t roll all the way - it is way too far!
Kids should also get a kick of walking from Nevada to Arizona and back again.
If you have seen the movie Transformers,it is interesting trying to find the various scenes and mistakes that the movie makes with the dam. Read more about the movie here and here.
The facts and figures on the size of the lake and the amount of concrete in the structure (enough to pave a highway from New York to San Francisco) can be found several places on the web and this is a good reference.
The gift shop is not overly impressive unless you are a collector of magnets and vanity plates/cups. Interesting that they were selling “Hoover Dam rocks” which are simply rocks that are laying on the ground (I suggest that you save your money and pick up a rock as you walk back to your car).
There are also some great pictures of the views on a variety of structures on the web. Take a look here and I put a few below this post. The commemoration of the “high scalers” is very well done.
You can get to the Hoover Dam in an easy drive out of Las Vegas. After you are done losing money in the casinos of Vegas, take a 90 minute drive out into the desert to see this magnificent display of engineering.
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[…] or concierge for options. Driving on your own is not terribly tough and it will take you across Hoover Dam so you can visit there as well. It takes about 90 minutes to get to the dirt road through the […]
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