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| - Hoover Dam is an engineering marvel, and you owe it to yourself to pay it a visit when you're in the Las Vegas area.
If you have access to a car, I highly recommend driving yourself rather than taking a tour bus from Las Vegas. It's only about 40 minutes from Las Vegas, well-signed, and easy to find. There's plenty of parking ($10 as of this writing). If you drive yourself, you can take things according to your own schedule (especially important if you plan to take in a show in Vegas that evening, as we did!).
That said, you'll want to get there fairly early to beat the tour bus crowds and to be sure to get the tour you want. We got there at 11:00 a.m., parked and passed through security relatively quickly, and were able to get tickets for the 1:00 p.m. dam tour. This gave us plenty of time before the tour to see the introductory movie, grab a bite to eat (the little café makes a very good grilled cheese sandwich on sourdough), and take a leisurely stroll through the exhibits before settling into the designated waiting area 15 minutes prior to our tour, as advised.
There are two tours available: The power plant tour for $15 (which is relatively short, and just shows you the power generating facility on the Nevada side) and the dam tour for $30 (which includes sites within the dam structure itself). I highly recommend taking the full dam tour...it's utterly fascinating!
A word about the claustrophobia warnings you will see just about everywhere before the tour: If you're moderately claustrophobic, as I am, don't be put off. It really depends on what form your claustrophobia takes. If, like me, you're mostly bothered by being in restricted spaces where you can't move freely, you'll be fine. There are three elevator rides on the dam tour, all in good-sized elevators, with no more than 20 people. It's a little tight, but not uncomfortably so...no more so than a ride in an average department store elevator on a relatively busy day, and the rides are short. Once you're in the power plant, you're in passages that are wide and brightly lit, or in full-sized rooms. Inside the dam itself, you're mostly also in reasonably wide (as in too wide for me to touch both sides at once), well-lit passages with plenty of headroom. There are two places where a really tall person might have to bend his/her head a bit (Neither of us did. I'm 5'4" and my husband is 5'9"), but they're optional (worth doing, though, if they don't make you uncomfortable...one gives you a fantastic view and photo op and the other gives you a look at the infamous "stairway to heaven" and "stairway to hell."). If you don't feel comfortable going down them, you can just wait in the main passageway until your tour is ready to move on.
One of the things that impressed me was the beautiful attention to detail inside the dam itself. Hoover Dam was built during the height of the Art Deco period, and Deco details are everywhere, from the beautiful brass gates and doors to the mosaics in the priceless terrazzo floors. No reason a utilitarian installation can't also be beautiful!
The Dam Tour ends on top of the dam, with fantastic views down the Colorado on one side and up Lake Mead on the other. It's worth taking in the short (about 10-minute) old school demonstration in the original tourist facility on the top of the dam...it's a bit cheesy, but the topographical map demonstration of the areas benefited by the dam really is interesting.
Of course, you can visit the dam without going on a tour at all. You can go on top of the dam, visit the exhibits, snap pics of the face of the dam, etc. If you can make time for the tour, though, it really is worth it.
By the way, you may be thinking that you can give visiting Hoover Dam a miss, because it seems that that you can see the dam as you drive past on the Tillman Bridge en route to Arizona. No can do. The walls on the bridge are too high...if you're hoping to see Hoover Dam from the road, you'll be out of luck! If nothing else, take the time to drive down, park, and take a look at this fascinating piece of American history!
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