Lake Mead National Recreation Area

National Recreation Area (National Park Service) The First In The United States; Lake Mead Is The Largest Reservoir In The US By Capacity When Full · Boulder City, Nevada

Lake Mead National Recreation Area is a vast National Park Service unit on the Nevada-Arizona border, built around two reservoirs on the Colorado River: Lake Mead, formed behind Hoover Dam, and Lake Mohave, below it behind Davis Dam. Designated by Congress in 1964 as the first national recreation area in the country, after decades of recreation management since the dam was finished, it covers desert mountains, canyons, beaches and hundreds of miles of shoreline a short drive from Las Vegas. People come to boat, swim, fish, kayak Black Canyon below the dam, drive the Lakeshore and Northshore scenic roads, hike the old railroad tunnels and camp by the water. The lake has also become a symbol of drought in the West: since about 2000 its level has fallen far below full, leaving a white bathtub ring on the canyon walls and forcing launch ramps and marinas to close or move. Summer heat, sudden afternoon winds, cold spring water and drowning are real hazards, and boats must follow strict quagga mussel rules.

10 Lakeshore Road, Boulder City, Nevada, 89005, United States

NO OPENING TIME HERE WAS CHECKED. The typical pattern: the recreation area is open 24 hours a day all year, but entrance stations are staffed during the day and some roads, beaches and day-use areas close at night. The Alan Bible Visitor Center keeps daytime hours, roughly 9 am to 4:30 pm, and may close on some days or holidays. Marina stores, rentals and fuel docks keep their own hours, shorter in winter. The traps that ruin a day are towing a boat to a ramp that has closed with the low water, getting caught on open water when the afternoon wind rises, arriving at a summer beach at midday when it is packed and scorching, running low on fuel on Northshore Road, and planning a Black Canyon launch without a permit. Confirm current times before relying on them.

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