Nevada - Here I Come!!!

 

I always thought Nevada was rather a boring dull state. Of course I am basing that on only spending maybe two days in the state a while ago and both times that was in major cities. I am going to venture that perhaps that opinion was a wee bit premature. The drive up to Lake Mead and the Hoover dam had some of the most beautiful mountains and landscape that I have seen since I've been 'out west'. It is too bad that I was driving and didn't get to take any pictures. You will just have to trust me that it is drop dead gorgeous.

I camped on the shores of Lake Mead. Or actually it would have been the shores of Lake Mead but because of the drought, the water level has dropped down 144 ft from it's full level. It was sort of sad, some of the marinas were high and dry, many of the lakeside businesses had gone belly up. When the reservoir is full, it is the largest reservoir in the United States by volume.

Beautiful Lake Mead

Boulder City had a few attractions. Evidently there is another alien site such as Area 51 in Roswell, NM. In Boulder City there is Area 52, a little known place of mystery.

If I had room, I would have taken these guys home

As I hike and drive through the mountains, I am always scanning the hillsides looking for a glimpse of bighorn sheep. There are bighorn sheep signs everywhere, but the sheep never seem to be standing by those signs where I would have a chance to see them. Imagine my surprise when I found out that the sheep like to congregate most every day in one of Boulder City's city parks. They come down out of the mountains and like to graze on the golf course like grass supplied by the city. The day I was there, there were over 20 head.  

A mighty fne speciman

The boys

Besides Lake Mead, the big draw here is the Hoover Dam, which is really an engineering marvel, constructed during the Great Depression. It was literally a life-saver for so many people, thousands of people came out west to work on the dam. There were the high visibility fun/dangerous jobs like the high-scalers whose job it was to scale down the walls of the canyons on ropes to remove the loose rock. There were the mundane jobs such as the muckers who cleaned out the mud from the tunnels. None were more important though than the men who swept out the outhouses and kept them supplied with paper. Boulder City understands that and has erected a station honoring the Toilet Paper Men of Hoover Dam.

All decked out in Xmas finery

On the second floor of the historic Boulder Dam Hotel, where everybody from Shirley Temple to Boris Karloff slept, is the Boulder City/Hoover Dam Museum. I highly recommend that you visit this museum before you go to the Dam itself because it really prepares you for what you are about to see.

Looking down the Colorado River

And upriver

Doesn't this just scream the 1930's?

Perhaps the Hand of God photobombed my picture?

A railway track was built for trains to bring supplies to the dam.  They had to blast their way through a few mountains.  Once the dam was built, they tore up the tracks and now it is "The Historic Railroad Trail".  It went through five tunnels.  It was a lovely hike.