Looping Route 66: May 25 Viva Las Vegas !!

May 25 65 miles? Still in Boulder City at the Best Western

We hadn't intended to do any traveling today but things went faster than expected here at the Hoover Dam. So we shot up to Vegas to look at the lights.

Started the morning with breakfast over at the Southwest Grill. Nice arrangement at the hotel. You get a voucher for breakfast over there. After that we headed towards the dam but made a turn into the city park first as we read that mountain longhorn sheep oftentimes come down to graze on the lush green grass. Locals call it a buffet the sheep can't resist. There were a number of them resting in the shade scattered around the park. Just needed to watch where you walk - apparently they are spending a lot of time in the park.

Then headed over to Hoover Dam. We knew all the tours had been closed for Covid when we started the trip but were hoping they might be opening by the time we got here. No luck, everything inside was still closed. Other than being able to drive across the top of the dam and walk over the new Interstate 11 bridge for a view and stopping at the various observation pullouts there just wasn't that much for us to do/see there. Lake Mead is down almost 150 feet from full pond so even that was a bit disappointing. So after an hour or so we headed back to Boulder City and the museum at the historic Boulder City Hotel museum. The hotel was built in 1934 and primarily served dignitaries coming to see progress on the dam. Glamorous life at first to pretty run down at the end. Finally resurrected by dedicated locals to save it from demolition. Now serves as a small hotel on the top floors and the town museum on bottom floor. Nice free museum that goes over the history of building the dam and town. Then a late lunch and a siesta to get out of the heat. We've been in cooler weather for weeks and all of a sudden today we've got this high 90 degree heat with strong sunshine and its killing us. This dry heat is weird - seems you can't drink enough fluids.

Front of the dam from the new I-11 bridge walk

New I-11 Bridge overlooking the dam

Back side of dam with intake towers for hydropower

Lake Mead. Water should be up to the left side of the picture and the dark section of the island. Currently down 150' from full pond and expected to reach a new low this year.

So late afternoon we headed to Las Vegas just to look around since we've never been there and we're only about 25 miles away. Drove up and down the strips as it turned to night with Martha wildly snapping away on the camera. Plenty flashy for sure. Personally, I can mark it off the bucket list as a place I've been. Been there, done that. No need to go back. Just not for me.