Valley of Fire State Park and Hoover Dam

Maximizing our journey to the Grand Canyon and Zion National Park, on our way back to Las Vegas, Scottie and I stopped at the Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada and the Hoover Dam on the border of Arizona and Nevada.  And even as we left Zion, we stopped for breakfast at Wildcat Willies (Go 'Cats!) and took a scenic drive up along the Kolob Terrace Road.

The Kolob Terrace Road is a pioneer ranch road follows ancient lava flows meanders through pinyon and juniper forests, and overlooks stunning salmon-colored cliffs.  It weaved in and out of Zion Park and rancher property.  It provided unique views at first, but it took about an 2 hours to get up to the Kolob Reservoir and back. Not sure it was worth it.  We managed to find a nice overlook though at Lave Point Overlook, where you can make out the Hurricane Fault line and see all the way down to the other part of Zion Park.

From the Kolob Terrace Road drive, we headed back to Nevada via Arizona passing through some scenic canyons that we thought might be the Yellow Knolls.  These made the drive from Utah to Arizona to Nevada a little less painful; however, after this 5-mile or so stretch, there was a whole lot of nothing.  

We headed a little off-route to the Valley of Fire State Park, which derives its name from red sandstone formations, formed from the great shifting sand dune during the age of the dinosaurs, 150 million years ago!  We were amused by the "self pay" fee to get into the park, but naturally, we supported them!

While we weren't up for hiking much in this 100 degree heat, we did take the less than mile hike to this Elephant Rock.  Later, we found the official visitor's center where I learned that this was not only the this Nevada's First State Park, it's also a National Natural Landmark.

After that hour or so detour, we made our way into the Lake Mead National Recreation Area where our NPS Park Pass came in handy again for the fees.

We arrived at the Hoover Dam with enough time to get in a tour of the Power Plant, which included access to a viewpoint above and below the dam.  Along the tour, we learned that Water from Lake Mead flows into the "Penstock" or the large pipes, which carry the water to the generators.  Water released from the turbine is discharged back into the Colorado River.  The dam stands 726 feet tall, the tallest solid concrete dam in the western hemisphere and it is 660 feet thick at its base, which is wide enough for back-to-back football fields.  In the photo above, you can see out to the newer O'Callaghan/Tillman Memorial Bridge, which we climbed up on after our tour.

The Hoover Dam is located on the border of Arizona and Nevada, so at certain times of the year, it's in two time zones!  Lastly, we completed our trip with a beer at the Barley's Casino & Brewery, which literally was a casino and brewery.  Plus, I did make Scottie loop around to the Las Vegas Welcome Sign so I could capture that before we returned the rental car and boarded our red eye back to Detroit!  Cheers!

See more photos from our adventures in my photo album.