My son and I utilized the middle of the day hours to drive around, exploring the local area and generally sight seeing. We traveled to Lake Mead and Hoover Dam on a couple of occasions.
The Mike O’Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge is like art and an engineering marvel rolled into one, which is fitting for this location, the site of the magnificent Hoover Dam, built over a period of 5 years from 1931 to 1936. That such a structure could be built in those early years of the 20th century is an astounding engineering feat.
I had to be sure to have a firm grip on my iPhone as I leaned over the walkway to shoot downward at the face of Hoover Dam. It was a windy day and the wind hitting the dam face was deflected upward with a significant velocity.
The image above is of Lake Mead, behind Hoover Dam. The bleached rock layers indicate the historic level of Lake Mead. This is a very large reservoir, so that indicated drop in the water level represents a tremendous amount of water that is no longer in the reservoir. Reading about the effect of the long drought in this area is concerning, but actually seeing the visible indication of how much water is gone, is much more impressive and startling. Maybe the recent heavy precipitation in this area will provide some respite, but it will take years of above average rainfall to replenish this reservoir. In the meantime, people whose water supply depends upon this water resource are having to adapt to using much less water.
Large man made reservoirs in the western U.S. have allowed more people to move into previously arid desert areas and increased farming and ranching activity, but now the lack of water resources is having dire effects upon that population and agricultural activity.
The drive between the Valley of Fire area and Hoover Dam is a scenic one along Northshore Drive.
One can see from the clouds in these photos, that the weather was unsettled at times with intermittent rain and gusty winds and the light on the landscape changed as the clouds moved over. The clouds added much drama to the sky and to the photographs.
Until next time,
Ken