Hoover Dam & Valley of Fire

August 28: We went on a driving tour today over to Hoover Dam out of Boulder City, Nevada and Valley of Fire State Park about fifty miles north of Las Vegas. It was about a 175 mile round trip and well worth the drive. We drove down Hwy. 93 to Hoover Dam through Bolder City. They are building a new Bridge across the Colorado River below Hoover dam which will give a beautiful view of the dam once it is finished. There will be an arch below the bridge to support the middle part of the bridge. The bridge will look similar to the Natchez Trace Parkway bridge across Hwy. 96 just out of Leipers Fork, TN. The Dam is huge but Lake Mead seemed to be very low. They have closed a lot of the boat ramps around the lake and at the dam you can see the water mark where the water once was. We walked across the dam and took some pictures of both sides of Hwy. 93 which crosses the dam. I will post some picture of Hoover Dam and Valley of Fire. We left Hoover Dam and drove along the west edge of Lake Mead for about 65 miles to Valley of Fire State Park. Every time you think that you have seen all the red rock that there is you come across a place like Valley of Fire. The rocks are the reddest that I have ever seen. Helen and I were just in awe of the beauty of this place. The rocks were different that those we have seen in the other parks in that there were holes all in these rocks. It looked like you were on another planet, in fact there have been several science fiction movies made there using those strange red rocks. There was also lots of ancient Indian Petroglyphs which were too far up the rock wall to get pictures. We are doing fine but it is extremely hot here. The weather man said it was 107 but my thermometer showed 111 out there in the desert. Needless to say we did not go hikeing much. I will post pictures later, blogger is not able to up-load pictures at this time. Check out the link to Hoover Dam & Valley of Fire State Park.