Hoover Dam_March 2014

Is it almost April already?!  Boy, where does the time go?  No one said blogging was easy I suppose, with all the picture editing, video editing, uploading, creative thinking...Don't worry through we've been keeping plenty busy, hiking as much as possible.  Speaking of hiking, we just finished an incredible hike from Boulder City to the Hoover Dam!  Clocking in at just about 15 miles, this was our longest hike to date, but it was also the flattest.


For the GPS route, go to the GPS Page of course! (it may take awhile to load...)

Hoover Dam via Historic Railroad Hiking Trail



On a difficulty scale from 1-10 this was probably about a 3.. and that's only because it's so long, and you end the hike with 7.5 miles of steady incline.  Compared to the San Jacinto Peak Hike, this path is like Interstate 10.  EVERYONE uses it, including a Saint Patty's Day half marathon, that was lame...

But let's start from the beginning shall we.

Over the weekend, Audrey and I went out Boulder City, Nevada.  If you don't know, it's a small town off I-93 just southeast of Las Vegas, basically on the shore of Lake Mead, the largest man made lake, thank you Hoover Dam!

So let's talk about the path.  The trail we took was called the "Historic Railroad Hiking Trail" and it basically branches off of the "River Mountain Loop Trail".  Check out the pic on the left for the map at the trial head.  River Mountain Loop Trail is a completely paved bike path that loops around...yup you guessed it!.. the River Mountains.  If you look closely at the map, we stayed right at the Railroad Pass Trailhead marker on the bottom left, so we technically could have hiked from our hotel all the way to the Hoover Dam, but that was going to be around 28 miles...screw that!  So we drove to the edge of Boulder City and caught up with the trail at the Pacifica Trialhead (cut about the half the distance), which is where we begin our story.

As I mentioned above, the "trail" started out as a paved bike path.  I put trail in quotes because, the hiking snob I am, I don't consider anything paved as a trail, and you don't hike on pavement...you just kinda walk.  I'm going to pause here and mention the view of Lake Mead is absolutely fantastic from this whole section.  None of the pictures I took really do it justice, this one is pretty close.

Well, anyways, about  a mile in, we see a huge group of runner turning around at a cone set up.  We come to learn they're running a half marathon!  So for the next 6 (yes SIX) miles we walk along a half marathon getting passed by the runner, and passing a few of the walkers.  Not that I blame them for choosing that beautiful path, or such a good day, but it did take away from the natural beauty of the place.

Regardless, I was able to sneak in a few good pictures and got some really good video clips of the hike.

After about 3.5 miles of paved bike path, we branched off of the River Mountain Loop Trail and started due east toward the Hoover Dam.  The trail winds its way up a smaller mountain, but since the topo is dropping off at almost the same rate the trail climbs the mountain, its pretty much flat, if not a little downhill.  Kinda strange, but this part of the trail was amazing!  The trail takes you up and around the mountain, and through 5 long tunnels that were bore through the mountain.  After each hole was an amazing view of Lake Mead.

Once you get past the tunnels you start to see more and more evidence of the Hoover Dam.  There's a few fence to close to the trail down at night, and some restricted areas.  At this point the trail splits and goes around a little hill.  One way is labeled "Shortcut to Hoover Dam", the is labeled "Boneyard" ...so we went to the boneyard of course!  It was basically a gated off area with tons of huge metal scraps, probably for all the generators within the Dam.

Once you get passed the boneyard and a huge electrical substation, the trail drops you off right at the front door of the Hoover Dam!  Well more like the parking structure, but same thing!  The canyon just disappears beneath the ground, and all you can see is a wall of concrete in one direction, and one of the most majestic looking bridges built in recent years in the other.

Of course we weren't going to walk 7.5 miles to the Hoover Dam and not take the full tour.  $30 for an hour tour of one of the wonders of the engineering world...count me IN.

 I have to admit, it was pretty lame that they wouldn't let us take food in (they made us throw away some protein bars, and a few bags of mixed nuts! lesson learned I guess...).

The dam tour was quite something to behold.  After a quick dam video about the history of the dam, and some self exploration of the dam top level vista (perfect views up there), the dam tour takes you past one of the intake tunnels all the way down to the bottom where the dam generators are generating all the power I'm probably using to do this write up.  Pretty dam neat!

 Then, since we paid for the full tour (I don't know you wouldn't) 20 of us broke off to get a tour of the actual dam, rather that just the powerplant, and what a dam it is...the best part though was a little inspection tube that we toured that had a vent access to the face of the dam.  So naturally I stuck my hand out with my GoPro and got some killer shots.

After the dam tour, we went up and walked across the top of the dam into Arizona.  We had already made it that far..might as well enter another state!  From the top of the dam, you get some good views of the canyon down stream of Hoover and the huge bridge that crosses it.  On the backside, you get up close and personal with Lake Mead, which looks pretty sad if those calcium deposits are any indication on how low the lake is getting...one of the unsavory side effects of reclaiming the desert.

Then abouts, we had a quick lunch at the dam foodery (since they took our food...those dam security guards) and make the loooong trek back taking the 'shortcut' this time, then through the tunnels, across the paved bike path, back to Boulder City.

Notes:
Bring lots of water, Audrey and I finished about a gallon together.
Don't bring food into the dam, they will take it....
The $30 tour is worth every penny (don't waste your $15 on the short tour)
Don't do the hike in the summer time...there's almost no shade the whole hike, also wear sunscreen!
Then reapply sunscreen...

Video Summary of the Hike (first time I've done this, hope it works!)

MORE PICTURES!!