Hoover Dam
National Historic Landmark; Operated By The US Bureau Of Reclamation On The Nevada Arizona Line · Boulder City, Nevada
Hoover Dam is a curved concrete arch-gravity dam across the Colorado River in Black Canyon, on the Nevada-Arizona line about 35 miles south-east of Las Vegas. Built between 1931 and 1936 by thousands of Depression-era workers, it rises roughly 726 feet from bedrock and holds back Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the United States by capacity when full. Its hydroelectric plant supplies power to Nevada, Arizona and California, and the water it stores serves millions of people and farms across the South-west. It was called Boulder Dam for part of its early life before Congress settled the Hoover name in 1947. Visitors come for the sheer drop of the downstream face, the walk across the top between two states and two time zones, the Art Deco towers, bronze winged figures and terrazzo floors, the Powerplant Tour inside the canyon wall, and the view from the Mike O'Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge. It is a National Historic Landmark run by the US Bureau of Reclamation, reached through a vehicle security checkpoint, and in summer it is one of the hottest sights near Las Vegas.
Hoover Dam Access Road (NV 172), Boulder City, Nevada, 89005, United States
NO OPENING TIME HERE WAS CHECKED. The typical pattern: the Visitor Center and the Powerplant Tour run daily from about 9 am to about 5 pm Nevada (Pacific) time, with the last tour well before closing, and the site closes on a few holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. The crest walk and the Memorial Bridge walkway keep longer hours, but access to the dam road after dark has been limited at times. The traps that ruin a day are arriving mid-morning behind the coach tours and finding the Powerplant Tour sold out; reading a winter tour time on a phone that has switched to Arizona time, which is an hour ahead from roughly November to March; planning around the Dam Tour when it is suspended; and getting to the dam by one-way rideshare with no way back. Confirm current times before relying on them.