A big dam and a big canyon.

 Day 3: Las Vegas, NV to Hoover dam, Grand Canyon West, and Meadview, AZ



12:00 PM - Hoover Dam

Around noon we arrived at the Hoover Dam.  This is one of the world's greatest feats of human engineering.  I can't say everything about the dam that I could in a single blog post, but let me point out a few tidbits:

* The hydroelectric power generated from the dam powers 1.3 million residents of Nevada, Arizona, and California.
* The dam took 5 years to complete.
* The dam required 7.3 million cubic yards of concrete.
* There was so much concrete it would take over 100 years for it to dry.  Because of that, they had to invent new ways to cool the concrete.
* They literally invented many of the tools the unique structure required on site.
* They had to divert an entire river in order to construct the dam.
* An entire city was built for the works of the dam.

And this thing was built in the 1930's - the government contracted 6 different companies who all worked together and ended up finishing the dam 2 years early! There is no way a government can get something like that done today ... (Mary: Psh...they can't even get the roads fixed in the richest county in the US :-P )

Billy: I've visited before with my parents a few years ago, but I was blown away by this all over again!

That's a mighty big dam!

The Mike O'Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge spanning Nevada and Arizona.

Some cuties we found on top of the Hoover Dam.

Looking down the dam.  I almost dropped my phone!

The Colorado River flowing into the dam.

Intake valves where all the river water flows down creating hydroelectric power for over 1 million residents of California, Nevada and Arizona.

Our love spans time and space
(literally! - There is a 1 hour time difference between us in this picture because this is the Nevada-Arizona border line).

5:00pm - The Grand Canyon West

We reached the Grand Canyon West rim about 5:00pm just before the sun set.  There was actually snow and ice on the ground as the rim is at an elevation of about 5000 feet.  As the sun set, ice started forming in the shadows of everything, so we only had a limited amount of time to see this before we became icicles!

The Grand Canyon at sunset.

Standing on the edge.

We took the skywalk to walk out over the Grand Canyon (this is a glass semi-circle bridge jutting out of the edge of the Grand Canyon).

The Grand Canyon Skywalk.  Unfortunately they wouldn't let us bring our phones out there to take pictures, but this is about how it looked! (Yes, we're that big!)

The Grand Canyon West is run by the Hualapai Tribe of native Americans.  We enjoyed the gift shop with some of their beautiful art.

A sand painting by the Hualapai Tribe.  These are individually colored grains of sand arranged into a painting - BTW this was a small picture compared to the murals they have created.

6:00pm - Meadview, AZ

We left the Grand Canyon just as the sun went down.  It was extremely cold by that point and the roads were starting to freeze over.  We drove through fields of Joshua trees on the way to Meadview.



Meadview is a very small town of about 1200 people.  We were a bit worried about finding anything in the town and we were super hungry by this point (our only meal was left-over rice and edamame for breakfast!).  But to our surprise, this charming town has a few really nice locations.  One of which is the Boathouse.  This was probably the only restaurant in town and it was amazing.  The people were friendly and hospitable. 

The Boathouse was a welcome spot in the small town of Meadview. (Mary: It's not a joke. There is a lake in the middle of this dry-butt desert.)

Inside the Boathouse the next morning.

Kilt Lifter beer - quite possibly the best amber beer I've ever tasted.

Next stop: Page, AZ!


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