G.A.S.P.

On November 16, I rode from Kingman to Boulder City, Nevada. It was a real nice ride, mostly downhill or level and with a light wind at my back. The desert began to change as I neared Nevada. I saw my first palm trees, and there were trees of some other kind (Joshua Trees?) as well. The mountains (Cerbat Range) were devoid of vegetation, but beautiful nonetheless.

Toward the end of the day, I came to (and rode right over the top of) Hoover Dam. This is one of the few man made structures I’ve encountered that rates a "wow". It’s big and very impressive. I’d like to list some specifics, but they won’t even let visitors in the Visitor Center (to gather that kind of information) unless you’ve paid to take a tour of the dam. I didn’t have sufficient time for their dam tour, so I didn’t find out much detail about the structure. I do know that it was built between the years of 1931 and 1935, is 726 feet high, and that it was, and still is, a major source of electrical power for the region. Also, Lake Mead (110 miles long) was formed by the dam and has been a major source of boating and fishing recreation for decades. In recent years, it has become a National Recreation Area (one of the many types of units of the National Park Service).