Dam-it

After a nice sleep last night, I awoke bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for my ride from Flagstaff to Vegas.  This span of road is pretty uneventful, so I decided to spice it up by going a little bit out of the way to stop by the Hoover Dam.  When I left at 9 a.m., it was 56 degrees... when I got out at the dam at 1 p.m., it was 115 degrees... Yikes! 

Located 30 miles east of Vegas, this dam provides electricity to the whole entire area... if not some of L.A. as well.  I've been there several times before, and with the way the road was laid out and increasing terrorist threats in the U.S., getting over it was time consuming... so they put into effect the Dam Bypass Project, which includes a new highway and a bridge that spans the Colorado River 850 feet above it, and is the longest concrete arch bridge in the western hemisphere... and the second highest in the U.S., behind the Royal Gorge Bridge in Colorado.  What used to take an hour to cross the dam now takes about 10 seconds to bypass it... and at only $240 million ($114 million for the bridge alone).... what a bargain.  Made my trip much nicer and an added bonus was the better picture-taking vantage point.  In the pictures, double click and click again for the large version, and check out how small the people and cars are, to give you some perspective.

I barely put the radio on in the car on the way here.  Driving through the desert offers time to think and room to breathe... it's not suffocating, pretentious or cluttered... it's flat with an unobstructed view... it's simple and consistent and isn't full of surprises.  It's warm in temperature and color, and it invites you in with a spiritual feel to it.  You are aware of time and distance... both in how long it takes to get from point to point... but you can't help feel history here feeling the presence of those before us.  You have to look at every rock and wonder how it got there... eroded and exposed... pushed up from below... or carried via glacier.  You become aware of every little thing and it's fight for survival in sometimes harsh surroundings and with a little rain, you are happy for the sprig of life growing from the dirt or rock or the animal living underneath it... both reliant upon the gift.  You are definitely aware of global warming in this area... and one prime example is how little water is in the resevoir.  When you look at the large picture, notice the coast of the resevoir has the white markings... that's how high the water used to be.  Three years ago, it was half that much.  Conservation is ever-prevelant out here.

If you pass through these parts and don't see or feel these things... take a fucking plane instead because you have no soul or compassion.  Overheard at the dam by a teenager today:  "this is just a bunch of water, let's go".  Yea, kid... forget about the delicate ecosystem and towns of people that rely on this for their existence... forget about all the money and effort and lost lives in the building of the dam... forget about how the area has changed and continues to do so because of this marvel.  Ok, I'll get down from my soapbox now.

I'm in Vegas.  I'll see an old friend later on and go riding around where I used to live.  Tomorrow, I'll be heading to Mt. Charleston, about an hour away, where it goes from 115 degrees at the bottom on the desert floor to about 60 degrees at it's top, around 7,500 feet above sea level.  I used to go here to escape the heat and feel like I was home.  You can see the flora and fauna changing right before your eyes on the drive up... pine trees at the top around the ski lodges.