Day 46: Hoover Dam, Willow Beach, Fish Hatchery

Hoover Damn

Day 46: Nov 13, 2013

Heard the coyotes last night..luckily before sleep time.

Here is my review of the Boulder Beach campground in Lake Mead National Recreation Area: In November on weekedays, not very busy so that is a plus.  Luckily we don’t need to use their toilets (ancient and not appealing), no showers (not a problem for us as we are self contained). 

Hoover Dam

This super big guy was busy working....

 Most sites are fairly well spaced but there isn’t too much plant life dividing site (despite watering all plants).  They have quite a few pull throughs and some are paved.  They have a fair amount of paved sites that are not pull through.  We have slow Verizon coverage here for mifi and our cell phone works.  For $10 it is a reasonable choice.  There is walking along the beach and a bike trail nearby, not far from Hoover Dam (5 miles?).  Next visit we will do the biking.



Willow Beach

Today, our first stop was a visit to Hoover Dam.  Since David had taken the tour (the good one prior to 9/11 when they took you down into the bowels of the works), we elected to not do the tour.  I was also feeling a little less than great.  Hoover Dam was impressive to say the least.  We walked out on the walkway over the dam.

Colorado River at Willow Beach...picture Ed kayaking here...

From there we got on the road (route 93 south) and had only a vague idea of where we would end up.  On a whim we decided to stop at Willow Beach, a little 5 mile off shoot that led to a body of water.  It was the Colorado River and south of Hoover Dam. 

Campground is just below those two black dots in center

 A nice area actually with a campground $35 that looked fairly new but we didn’t really need anything from the campground and didn’t want to give away $35.  There is a marina there and it is probably a good place to kayak (take note Patty and Ed).  There is also a fish hatchery there as well which we elected to take a look at (free).  Apparently, they stock the river each Friday (by the fishing dock) with 2,000 rainbow trout of catchable size…so I guessing that the fisherfolk there are pretty happy if they are there on Fridays.  They also have in the past provided the Native Americans with fish and restocked other parts of the river.  Endangered species are bred and researched here as well.  It was interesting and there were LOTS of fish in long tanks.

On the road again and about time to make decision as to where to stay the night.  We elected to pull off of the well travelled route 93 to take a side gravel road and stay off from the road.  Another RV was there about ¼ mile away.