Hoover Dam

If you’ve decided to rent a car in Las Vegas, one of your more interesting options for a short road trip is the Hoover Dam. It’s about 30 miles from the Las Vegas Strip, but it always takes around an hour or a bit more to get out there. The last 10 miles are on a single-lane road and the going is slow, but fortunately the scenery is gorgeous so the drive will be part of the fun.

The Hoover Dam (originally called the Boulder Dam) was constructed over the Colorado River on the border between Nevada and Arizona between 1931 and 1936, and when it was finally in place it formed the huge Lake Mead just to its north, which is a nice recreational area and another worthwhile stop for Vegas day-trippers.

Parking

There is a new and huge covered parking garage located on the Nevada side, which costs $7 per car. There is a free outdoor parking lot across the Dam on the Arizona side, which is great if you don’t mind a bit of a walk, but during summer you might not want to walk and leave your car in the scorching sun.

Hours

Parking Garage: Open 8:00 a.m. — Close 6:00 p.m.
Visitor Center: Open 9:00 a.m. — Close 5:00 p.m. Tickets sold until 4:15 p.m.

Tours:
Summer: first tour is at 9:15 a.m.; last tour is at 5:15 p.m.

Winter: first tour is at 9:15 a.m.; last tour is at 4:15 p.m

Visitor’s Center

You can walk back and forth across the Dam and marvel at this engineering feat, but you can also stop in at the Visitor’s Center for $8 for anyone over the age of 3, although it’s free if you sign up for one of the two tours below. The Visitor’s Center has various displays, maps, and photos of the history of the Dam, and there is also a theater that shows a 10-minute film called “How the West Was Won,” which shows the building process in much greater detail.

Tours

Powerplant Tour

This self-paced tour takes you through the process of how the dam turns the flowing river into electricity. There are explanations by guides and audio and film presentations involved and two hours is recommended to see it all, although it can be done in half that time if you don’t read every last display text. More information is available from the official Web site.

Admission: $11 for adults, $9 for seniors and ages 4-16

Dam Tour

This 90-minute guided tour takes visitors deep inside the inner workings of the Dam and requires over one mile of walking. It’s given every half hour beginning at 9 a.m. through 3:30 p.m. and children under 8 are not permitted. More information is available from the official Web site.

Admission: $25 with no discounts

Tips for visiting Hoover Dam

This is a really popular attraction and it gets extremely busy, especially on weekends. It’s the least busy during the morning hours, and of course during summer this is the best time to visit anyway since Hoover Dam is usually a bit hotter than the already-scorching Las Vegas.

This may sound like a blah attraction, and the tours certainly aren’t amusement park-style fun and may be a waste of time and money for some people, but most find them enjoyable. Even if you aren’t interested in a tour, driving to Hoover Dam can be really fun and interesting, and you can get an excellent view of the whole thing just by parking for free on the Arizona side and then walking once back and forth over the Dam.

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