On Friday, Dec. 13th we drove to the Hoover Dam and Lake Mead National Recreation Area. The day was clear and there were numerous visitors at the dam, which spans the border between Arizona and Nevada. We had to pass through a security checkpoint before we could enter the area around the dam, where they asked us to open our car-top carrier and examined it's contents before we were allowed to pass over the dam.
The Hoover Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam built in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River in the 1930s by the CCC camps during the Great Depression. It is 726 feet high and holds back Lake Mead, the biggest reservoir in the United States in terms of water capacity.
The steel rainbow bridge in the background is the main highway that leads from Arizona to Las Vegas. The structure in the right-center of the picture is the parking garage at the visitor's center.
Then we drove 40 miles back to the Valley of Fire State Park again to explore some more of the hiking trails. First, we stopped at the Seven Sisters formation, where we had lunch in the shadow of the sandstone monoliths.
Next, we drove out to the end of the White Domes Road to explore the White Domes Trail.
To our surprise, we found a beautiful slot canyon along the trail.
Shortly after that, we found some local inhabitants out for an afternoon stroll in the desert. Some of them seemed curious about their visitors. Wild animals can be unpredictable at times.
This young male actually walked right up to within a few feet of Mom while she snapped away with her camera, making her a little nervous.
We also found another natural arch in the sandstone along the trail as we headed back toward the parking lot.
Lastly, we went to Rainbow Vista, another desert hiking trail that took us to a large number of sandstone formations with varying coloration.
Tomorrow we are leaving Las Vegas and driving to Death Valley National Park to start exploring there😉.
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