Lake Mead, Nevada

May 7, 2023

We re-entered the state of Nevada after having left it about eight months ago. The southern corner near Lake Mead is quite different than the northern part of the state that we visited last year. Instead of being immediately accosted by one casino after another like last year, this time around, our first sightings were of Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam. (Well, we didn't actually *see* the dam because of the high barrier walls on the bridge parallel to it, but we knew it was there 😉.)

Hoover Dam was to the right of this picture. We couldn't actually see it from the road, due to the high side walls.

Lake Mead

103 degrees outside!

Our campsite was gorgeous, having a lovely view of Lake Mead. Since it was still warm well after sunset (at least 85F), we sat out on the deck until it was time to go to bed. We really appreciate warm summer nights when we get them, as they tend to be few and far between with the places we tend to go. 

One of Rick's favorite pastimes--swatting flies with his (now) supercharged electric fly-swatter. It's pretty awesome--except when you accidentally swat yourself. 😬

Since Julie had to get up early the next morning to reserve a campsite, she got to see a beautiful sunrise.

Afterwards, we got the oil changed on the truck, checked out Lake Mead, and just hung out.

All the land on either side of this road used to be underwater. Our campground used to be close to the beach--now it is about a mile away.

It was quite windy this day.

The next day, the weather cooled off to the 70s, and stayed there for most of the remainder of our stay. We got out the bikes and rode to Hoover Dam (15 miles round trip).

Our campground was an oasis in the desert.

That is our campground which used to be beach-side. You can see how far away from the lake it is now.

The marina. Most of the island behind the marina used to be submerged.

The bike trail followed the original train track bed that was used to convey needed supplies to Hoover Dam during its construction.

It was fun going through the many tunnels.

Must be getting close to the dam.

Hoover dam straddles the Nevada-Arizona state line. (Nevada to the left; Arizona to the right)

Downstream from the dam

The Mike O'Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge, opened in 2010 to bypass Hoover Dam. This is the bridge we drove over a couple of days ago.

This picture was taken from the Mike O'Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge. The "bathtub ring" is very prominent here.

In the afternoon, we continued to follow the bike trail along Lake Mead in the opposite direction from Hoover Dam.

We are not gamblers, but seeing that we were so close to Las Vegas, we figured that we should at least go see the place. So the next day, we headed off to Sin City to check it out.

Wonder which Koval this street was named after?

We managed to find free parking at the Venetian. They seem to be the last remaining property offering free parking.

The Venetian offered gondola rides in a swimming pool (no swimming allowed)

The inside shopping mall was done-up to look like Venice

The entertainment probably would have been better if the acoustics didn't sound so "mall-like"

The Flamingo had some real flamingos

For those that prefer to be served by a robot. Not sure if you are supposed to tip them.

New York New York was cute

The inside of New York New York was decorated to look like the streets of New York

The Luxor with the giant sphinx out front

Most of the casinos looked very similar to each other (and not as impressive as expected). The exception was the Cosmopolitan. This one seemed more classy and glitzy. To be fair, we didn't go inside *every* casino.

The high roller tables. We didn't try to go in there.

Caesar's Palace

The nightly volcano show outside of the Mirage. Word has it, Hard Rock bought the property and the volcano will be demolished to make way for a giant guitar.

The dancing fountains at the Bellagio. Our favorite free attraction in Vegas.

Paris' Eiffel Tower is only half-size-- airport restrictions wouldn't allow it to be built full-scale.

Thought the gold-foil look was pretty cool. (It was made up of LED screens.)

We enjoyed the Bellagio fountain shows so much, we hung around for several of them.

All in all, we enjoyed our side trip to Las Vegas, but we probably wouldn't come back. For one, we aren't gamblers, so there's that. For another, everything was quite expensive and the awesomeness just wasn't at a level to make it worth it. Julie got a Bailey's milkshake for $18. It was good, but just not that good. Yes, you are paying for the location, but to be honest, a lot of the properties were looking kind of dated. So, we were not "wowed" in the way that perhaps we were expecting.

We had walked a lot in Las Vegas, including going up and down many, many times to get from one property to another and sometimes just to cross the street. And for some reason, more than half of the UP escalators were broken. So, the next day (Julie's birthday) we were quite tired, and we just lounged around for the most part. Rick made Julie some awesome lemon-blueberry pancakes for breakfast and then he took her out to a fun restaurant in nearby historic Boulder City. That night, we re-watched Ocean's 11, and appreciated it more now that we recognized several of the landmarks in the film.

Lake Mead from a hilltop in Boulder City

The rest of our stay was spent relaxing and enjoying ever-changing views of Lake Mead.

Not much luck with the night time photos this time!

The line of planes heading to Vegas

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