Hoover Dam, Nevada

The Hoover Dam which sits on the Arizona and Nevada border is about 30 miles southeast from Las Vegas and does NOT have a street address.  GPS coordinates are N 36.016222, W -114.737245

The Bureau of Reclamation has conducted tours through the Hoover Dam and powerplant since 1937.

The Dam is now a National Historic Landmark, is 726.4 feet tall, weighs more than 6,600,000 tons, used 3 1/4 million cubic yards of concrete, generates about 4 billion kilowatt-hours of hydroelectric power each year and took 5 years to build.

Our Thoughts 

We arrived in the evening just an hour before they were getting ready to close, so we were unable to take a tour.

We were also disappointed to find out that you can no longer drive along the bottom of the dam as you could in previous years. That is how so many people got photographs of the dam’s massive size. So that is something to also keep in mind.

Another thing to keep in mind if traveling with pets; they are not allowed anywhere on the site.

You are allowed to drive over the dam but can only do so by entering through the Nevada side. The bridge which is parallel to the dam is now used for crossing over from Arizona to Nevada on Hwy 93. If you want to cross the dam, you must exit the highway at Nevada State Route 172 to reach the site. We didn’t know this and tried to find a way from the Arizona side, the road that originally took you to the dam is now closed.

Also, there are restrictions on what vehicles can cross over the dam after you go through the inspection checkpoint. You can check that list out here.

All in all, it was pretty cool to finally see it as I had only ever seen it in history books and on T.V. The water was REALLY low when we visited which made it seem even that much bigger!

FIREARMS AND OTHER WEAPONS ARE NOT ALLOWED, so you may also want to keep that in mind. They do vehicle inspections at the checkpoint.

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