Kingman and Hoover Dam

by Jane

[Thursday, 13th September]  We woke up at Lake Havasu with the plan of getting down to see London Bridge before we left - and before it got too hot. Gary did the walking to get the photo as Dad and I had taken a few shots and retreated into the shade.

London Bridge at Lake Havasu

Then we set out on our second day of driving - from Lake Havasu to Kingman, Boulder, and Las Vegas.  The scenery was far more desert-like than I had expected, but interesting.  The hills (mountains?) that surround the wide valleys are beautiful.

At Kingman we took a wrong turning and instead of driving straight on to Boulder we ended up in the town itself.  What an interesting place we found it.  First there was a really huge steam engine on display in a small grassy park.  We trotted around the engine, admiring it greatly, and then went across the road to the tourist information centre in the Powerhouse Museum.

Gary by the Train in Kingman

While in the museum car park we noticed the signs for historic Route 66, one of Gary's motives for this road trip.  Photos with the signs were naturally required.

Gary and Don by the sign marking Route 66

We had a great time in the museum complex (in the shops mainly, but that's typical of me) and Dad got himself a very nice Route 66 t-shirt.  Then we headed out to Boulder, going this way yo make sure we visited the Hoover Dam.  I knew nothing about this dam, though Dad swotted up for the trip and is full of interesting facts, but when we arrived there I was very impressed.  It's Art Deco!  Even the modern car park building has been built in that style as it nestles against the rocks and everything was just beautiful.  Except the heat.  I couldn't stand out in the sun at all and tried to keep Dad in the shade, too, but hatless Gary trotted off to get photos of the dam itself where my own were limited to the car park building.  The one below shows Dad and Gary with the railings of the upper car park levels behind them.  (I also got complaints about taking photos when people aren't ready but, honestly, in that heat I wasn't hanging around for some people to pull their tongues in. ;o)

Don and Gary at Hoover Dam

Art Deco Dam Bits

These photos of Gary's e only saw once we were in Las Vegas and while the 'blokes' were having a well earned wine (in their own opinion, of course) I set up a slide show of the days photos.  We commented on the white 'high tide' mark around the cliffs as we drove along, though, and wonder if it is exactly that - the high water mark of the lake.  Should look it up, I suppose.

Added: I did look it up.  From this neat web page I discover that "... you can see white lines surrounding the water. That level is the high water mark of where the water level reached in 1983. Since that time, the water has receded, leaving salt deposits on the side of the rock that have since been bleached by the sun ..."
 

Lake Mead (behind the Hoover Dam)

Gary took lots of great photos and I've only put a few in here.  He is putting most of them on his Flickr pages when he gets a chance:  USA Trip Photos

Hoover Dam and the Bridge

And then on to Las Vegas, which might have to be a post on its own.


Jane
in Las Vegas