I left Las Vegas and headed into the Valley of Fire. It is a lovely State Park filled with interesting rock formations. These were formed differently than the others I have seen. The formations here, which are called Beehives, were layers of silt blown by the wind. You can see the lines that show the directions and depth of the silt that are frozen in stone. Somme of the Beehives that were worn down over time or just were short to begin with look like cow patties. They are very funny. I did find a rock formation which from one angle looks like a cobra ready to strike, but then again I do have an over active imagination.
From there I drove along Lake Mead to the Hoover Dam. Lake Mead doesn't look like much and you can't see it from most of the road. It is surrounded by real desert, nothing is happening out there. It is scrub, little sad bushy plants separated by sand and gravel. But then you get to the Dam. What a sight. It is over whelming in it size and depth. On top of everything else the care and workmanship of the details is incredible. There is marble terrazzo floors throughout the inside of the Dam, even in the Power Plant. I took the Power Plant tour and it knocked my socks off. You can't grasp the size of everything. They have two cranes, each of which could lift the Statue of Liberty. The new bridge is very impressive from below but you can't tell you are going over when you are on it. They have an observation deck which, of course, has the best view. It is so exciting to look down, down, down the wall of the Dam. It seems to go on forever. Another interesting thing about the Hoover Dam is that half of it is in Nevada and half is in Arizona. Everything is duplicated.
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