Hoover Dam

The family all woke up at about 2.30am but were very good and my daughter stayed with the boys while they played with toys or watched some recorded children's TV shows until everyone else emerged.

It was a superbly warm day with brilliant blue skies and after walking Kymba we set off to visit Hoover Dam. I blipped it on my first visit here two years ago almost to the exact day, and wrote a fairly comprehensive journal so if you are interested then please check it out. That day I posted a view of the popular river side of the enormous dam, so today I decided to blip the other side where you can see quite clearly the iconic arch design which relies on the power of the water to push against the front curve which effectively pushes the sides against the mountain gorge without any need for steel strengthening. The top of the dam is used by both cars and pedestrians as you can see although a majestic new suspension bridge has been built to take the majority of the traffic. The structures you can see in the water to the right of the dam are the inlets for the water from Lake Mead (fed by the Colorado River) the level of which is now considerably below its high water mark which you can see from the bleached area of rock. Apparently the water level has only once reached a height where they have had to divert water into the side sluices to release pressure. As you can also see, there is very little colour here unless the sunset happens to glance across the mountain tops as here in this view looking away from the dam and towards Lake Mead.

The boys loved the day but almost the moment we put them in the car and headed for home they were sound asleep and once home they were simply transferred to their beds where they have remained sound asleep. It was, after all, in the middle of the night for their body clocks and they had been up for HOURS - heaven knows when they will wake up tomorrow!! I will try and comment on your journals when I can but as I am sure you will understand, it is a very busy time here but thank you for keeping up with my wonderful holiday, especially for all the comments, stars and hearts for the Mesa Arch on Wednesday.