Hoover Dad

Today Dad and I went to the Hoover Dam. The Hoover Dam is not necessarily near Prescott, but it is in Arizona, and I knew that Dad would love to go. Kelley did not fancy the drive so we decided to go on a day while she was working.

We didnt really know how far it was. We had a light breakfast with Carol and then got on the road. We decided to have a more substantial breakfast when we got to Ash Fork. Ash Fork is depressing. There was only one place to eat, but it was packed with locals, so we figured it had to be good. And it was. Kelley told us later that Ash Fork has a militia and that we were lucky. The locals seemed pretty friendly to us.

We then got on the long road to the Hoover Dam. Dad is not impressed with the scenery. He laughs as we pass through Prescott National Forest - which has trees, but none of them are over twenty feet tall and are shrubby looking. As we moved farther west the trees thinned out completely and were replaced by spiky shrubs and cacti. There were even chollas in some places.

It was hot outside. HOT. Breezy, but more like the heat escaping an oven than a relief. Traffic to the dam was not too heavy and the trip through the security check point was a joke. I dont think we even came to a complete stop before we were motioned to roll through. In reality I have a hard time believing that a bomb would have that much affect on a concrete structure so massive, but maybe.

The water level is way below where it was when I saw it a year and half ago. Our tour guide let us know that the water level was about 65 feet below normal. Don't worry there's still something like two hundred feet of water still behind the dam - maybe more.

We signed up for the next available Big Dam Tour and we were handed two yellow plastic hard hats. I thought it was weird and commented that I didnt get one of those last time. We had to have them for the tour, but Dad refused to wear his, and after mine blew off into traffic, I stopped wearing mine too. We had some time before the tour so we checked out the view, watched the little video, and went through the two museums.

The Big Dam Tour is pretty awesome. You squish like thirty people into a large elevator and then travel down down down to where the generators are. We went down a dark rocky tunnel to stand on top of a humming vibrating intake pipe where the tour guide explained the ins and outs of the dam. We then went into the room with the Nevada generators. The purpose of the Hoover Dam is to regulate water - not make electricity. Making electricity is just a profitable byproduct of releasing water for human's use. That's a weird concept to me since green power is just buzzing right now.

From there we went into the older parts of the dam that were designed for visitors in the thirties so they are beautiful. We then went back to the elevator to go in a service tunnel. From the service tunnel we could walk to the end and look out the vent. This tunnel was HOT because of all the outside air blowing in and short - just tall enough for me, but Dad had to duck the whole way down and back. Our nice tour guide offered to take a photo of us.

We went further down the hall to see the Stairway to Heaven - the escape stairs for when and if there is a fire because the fire would cause the elevators to stop working. I do not want to think about walking up all those stairs.

Battery is dying.... Oops.

Tomorrow Kelley, Dad, and I are going to try hiking down in the Grand Canyon. We will see how Dad does - wish us luck!