When I made the cross-country trek, moving to Las Vegas one month ago, it was a requirement we stopped at the Hoover Dam. It seems like the Dam is almost a right of passage when visiting, traveling to the Las Vegas area and frankly, it wasn’t all that I expected.
Flocks of tourists, piled of of buses, cars and even pink SUV’s snapped their photos, got a hot dog from the Hoover Dam Visitor Center and were off, myself included. Knowing a bit about the history of the Dam, as well as the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, I knew there had to be a more real, intriguing approach to exploring the area.
Luckily, just a few days ago I was a made aware of the Historic Railroad Tunnel Trail, which is 6.8 mile trail which connects Lake Mead to the Hoover Dam via a series of historic railroad tunnels which were built and used to support the construction of the Hoover Dam in the 1930s.
Aside from the sheer scale of the tunnels and the realization of their importance in one of the worlds most important and historic construction projects, the trail itself offers beautiful scenery, winding itself through the rugged desert and along the placid Lake Mead.
The trail itself is fairly flat and there is little gain in elevation. I would not recommend hiking this trail during the summer months, or in the middle of the day. Despite the length of the trail, the Dam acts as sort of a prize for your efforts as the trail technically ends on top of the Hoover Dam parking garage. I explored the dam area for about 30 minutes before returning back to the trail and heading home. In my opinion the dam is much better experienced via the Railroad Tunnel Trail.
