As you can see, we did not spend all of our time in the air. One day we took a bus tour of the Hoover Dam (a.k.a. Boulder Dam) located in the black canyon of the Colorado River. But first, notice the new US93 bridge located 1,600' downstream of the Hoover Dam crossing the Colorado River from Nevada to Arizona. Once complete in November, there will be no more traffic across Hoover Dam. With security checkpoints, you should have seen the traffic backed up trying to cross the dam; luckily our bus got there early enough to avoid all the congestion. This bridge is suppose to end all this traffic problem. The name of the bridge is the O'Callaghan-Tillman Memorial Bridge. O'Callaghan, I don't know anything about, but Pat Tillman was the Arizona Cardinal NFL player who was killed in Afghanistan serving this country.
Due to my fear of heights, Debbie did all the picture taking from the edge looking down. I stayed well away from the rail. We did not go down into the dam due to both of our claustrophobic condition; to hear some tour guide tell me how much water was pressing against the dam while I was down in it would be too much for me.
According to the information signs, Hoover Dam was constructed with 6.6 million tons of cement, which is enough to pour a 3" thick, 4' wide side walk around the equator! The dam is 726' tall, which makes it taller than the Washington monument, Gateway Arch, and the Pyramids.
The white line above Lake Mead behind the dam and all around the lake is called the "bathtub ring" and shows how severely water levels have been dropping. Currently, the lake is at 39% of its capacity and levels have been dropping steadily since 2000 due to higher than average evaporation rates and less than average snowfall in the Rockies (the Colorado River owes most of its existence to spring snow melt). Entire, multi-million dollar marinas have had to relocate due to the dropping water levels. The latest estimates project that by 2017 the lake will fall below minimum power level elevations (1050') and the lake's live storage ability will vanish by 2021, if global climate change continues and strict water conservation laws are not passed. So if you are going to see this lake, you better not put a trip off for too long.
Monument to the men who risked their life to build this dam during the depression years.
Thank you Japanese tourists for taking our picture and not running off with our camera.
I am glad Debbie got this shot. It makes me nervous just looking at these pictures. Yikes!
Due to my fear of heights, Debbie did all the picture taking from the edge looking down. I stayed well away from the rail. We did not go down into the dam due to both of our claustrophobic condition; to hear some tour guide tell me how much water was pressing against the dam while I was down in it would be too much for me.
According to the information signs, Hoover Dam was constructed with 6.6 million tons of cement, which is enough to pour a 3" thick, 4' wide side walk around the equator! The dam is 726' tall, which makes it taller than the Washington monument, Gateway Arch, and the Pyramids. 
The white line above Lake Mead behind the dam and all around the lake is called the "bathtub ring" and shows how severely water levels have been dropping. Currently, the lake is at 39% of its capacity and levels have been dropping steadily since 2000 due to higher than average evaporation rates and less than average snowfall in the Rockies (the Colorado River owes most of its existence to spring snow melt). Entire, multi-million dollar marinas have had to relocate due to the dropping water levels. The latest estimates project that by 2017 the lake will fall below minimum power level elevations (1050') and the lake's live storage ability will vanish by 2021, if global climate change continues and strict water conservation laws are not passed. So if you are going to see this lake, you better not put a trip off for too long. 
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