How to Take a Tour Inside Hoover Dam

Nevada Power

Take an elevator into Hoover Dam and see the workings of this magnificent structure. While the tour is not advisable for the claustrophobic, the dam's narrow cavernous corridors open into spacious rooms that house the power plants generating electricity for Las Vegas, Phoenix and Los Angeles. The considerably inexpensive guided tour offers a wealth of information about the dam’s construction, legends surrounding the dam, as well as statistics about capacity and output.

Instructions

1. Plan a visit off-season. Both Hoover Dam and Las Vegas are year round destinations, but are obviously more crowded during the summer, with crowds dissipating during the fall and winter. Even with the gorge covered in snow, an inside tour stays safe from the elements.

2. Take Boulder Highway southwest out of Las Vegas and follow directional signs to the Hoover Dam parking lot. Pay the nominal parking fee.

3. Purchase tickets at the Visitor Center. Ticket prices involve two separate tours. The Dam Tour is really a tour package involving all points of interest. It offers access to the observation deck, film presentations at the center and access down to the Power Plant. Another tour, the Power Plant Tour, entails just the interior of the dam and is much cheaper.

4. Walk across the dam while waiting for the scheduled elevator trip down. Note the four intake towers on the Lake Mead side of the dam. Note the spillways, and the whitewashed rock at the shoreline showing the lake’s water level. Note also how you'll be crossing the state boundary between Nevada and Arizona.

5. Take the rather quick elevator down to the power plant. When you exits the elevator and walk the narrow corridor, don’t be alarmed at the steady water dripping and wall seepage. The guide will make it a point to explain this as a normal function of the dam.

6. Shadow the guide as much as possible. The noise at this level will require getting use to. Many times, information can be lost because of the noise and the size of the crowds.

7. Enter the massive generator room and note immediately the art décor floor. Polished tiles are seemingly out of place, dating the dam to a pre-World War II era. This floor, along with the steady roar of the powerful generators, may remind you of an Ayn Rand novel.

8. Count the eight generators located on the level below, noting that these represent only half the dam’s output and that eight more are churning over on the Arizona side. Note the effort required to repair, remove and replace any one of those generators. You'll be able to see the tracking devices, cranes, and manpower involved.

9. Return to the surface of the dam and stop at the museum and gift shop located on the way back to the parking garage.

Resources

• Hoover Dam website