Day 8 Hoover Dam

Woke up and had breakfast with Tom before he left for work.  I left his house at 0815 after solidifying the day's plans and getting rid of some of the Mexican cuisine; if you know what I mean.  I had an uneventful drive up to the Hoover Dam and spent several hours there.  I pain $15 dollars for a tour that lasted 15 minutes.  I was able to see some neat things as you will note in the photos below but I don't think it was worth $15.  Also there was a completely blind man on the tour with his wife.  I'm not sure if he got much out of the tour and I hope he got in for free.  What was even more painful is the gas became 50 cents more expensive after I was out of southern AZ.  The dam was pretty amazing and I felt dizzy while standing on its edge looking down.  I also had a slight urge to jump off into the water beneath to get my money's worth.  I, however, contained myself and decided just to spit off the dam.  The base of the dam is 660 ft wide and it is 726 ft tall.  Only 3.25 million cubic yards of concrete were used and the engineers had to develop a special refrigeration technique in order to cool the concrete otherwise it would have taken over 100 years to cure.

The original river diversion tunnel in the canyon wall
that still has water running through.

The tops of the Nevada turbines.

One of the two 300 ton cranes in the power plant room.

Looking down on the power plant and where
the water comes out after running through
the turbines

A picture of US 93 from the dam. (looking down river)

Looking up river from the dam.  White is left behind minerals

AZ side overflow tunnel entrance.

On the AZ side looking at upriver side of the dam.  The 4
towers are the intake shafts for the water to go to the turbines.

Another view down river from the dam.

View of dam from the bridge.

After the dam I continued my drive up US 93 and drove through Las Vegas.  Every time I went past a casino, and there are a lot in Nevada, my wallet let out a little scream and seemed to become thinner.  I did find a $1 poker chip at a gas station so I figured I would end my gambling career there since I was already ahead.  I decided to stop in St George Utah which is 1 hour away from my trailhead I plan on hiking tomorrow.  I paid for a hotel room as I decided car sleeping is not the most fun and a shower is also conductible for a better attitude.