Nevada

We embarked on a trip to the national parks in Utah and Arizona a week around Easter in 1971 with our two oldest children aged 11 and 8. The trip started by first driving to Las Vegas , and after staying on night visited Lake Mead and Hoover dam, before continuing to Utah.

(The photos in this folder was taken in 1967 with a Mamya/Secor SLR on diapostive film, stored about 55 years in an non-controlled environment, this causing grain, color shift, dust marks and other artefacts. Yet, the pictures convey the experience we had then.)

Las Vegas and Hoover Dam

Lake Mead is a large reservoir on the main stem of the Colorado River, and is closed off with Hoover Dam, which formed Lake Mead. The dam is located in Black Canyon approximately 50 km east of Las Vegas.

At full capacity, Lake Mead is the largest reservoir in the United States by volume. Lake Mead has enough capacity to hold the entire average annual flow of the Colorado River for two years. At full pool, Lake Mead extends 100 km from Hoover Dam to Pearce Ferry. Its greatest width is 15 km, and the highly irregular shoreline is 880 km long. The water level changes through the seasons and the years. But in 2022 the level dropped to its lowest level ever, causing great concern.

The current rated capacity of the Hoover Dam power plant is 2.2 GW, and supplies the Greater Los Angeles Area. This compares to Three Gorges in China (world's largest) with 22.5 GW and Iguaçu Power Station in Brazil/Uruguay with 14 GW.