The Road to San Diego

Before leaving for San Diego on Friday morning, we toured and explored the Hoover Dam since our campsite was only about 10 minutes away. The dam is awesome and big – bigger than words, pictures, or even visiting it can convey. We walked around the outside and across the dam as well as went down inside to see one set of the hydroelectric turbines.

The visitor center was detailed and interesting, covering the history, construction, and power production aspects of the dam. (Any mention of more currently relevant topics, like the destruction of the Colorado River’s ecosystem or the unsustainable nature of the water and power supply, was strangely absent.) Nonetheless, it was great to get to see and learn about the dam.

The dam from the Arizona side

There are hydroelectric turbines inside both sides of the dam. For scale, each turbine has a steel 36-inch thick center shaft and produces 178,000 horsepower.

This room housing the turbines is 200 yards long

One of the more disturbing sights is of Lake Mead, the reservoir behind Hoover Dam. It's clear by lines on the rocks where the lake level is supposed to be - and how low it is today. Surprisingly, water is not the first concern: well before the water runs out, the lake will hit the point at which the hydroelectric turbines cannot operate – leaving Las Vegas and southern California without power.

Lake Mead (designed to be full to the white line)

Just 3 years ago, a bypass bridge was completed downstream of the dam to carry thru-traffic around Hoover Dam rather than over it for security reasons. This bridge is huge and has its own walkway, allowing for near-aerial views of the dam.

The bridge, as seen from the dam...

and the dam, as seen from the bridge

We left Hoover Dam and drove (again) across the Mojave Desert into southern California.

A solar power plant off the highway in Nevada

We ate lunch at In-N-Out burger, a famous Western chain, and it was very good (though it was insanely and inexplicably crowded for 2 PM on a Friday.) We drove around Los Angeles on our way down and to the coast, which (as I had would have guessed) required sitting in traffic and a fair share of tolls.

We made it to San Diego in time for a late dinner. Here, we met Jan Michael, a friend through the MVs: he had been a drum major when Jenna and I were freshmen. It was exciting to finally arrive there to spend our weekend on the Pacific coast!

Surfers and the sunset on our first San Diego evening