So, a change of plans again. Apparently the Tioga Road over the Sierra Nevada is still open so after passing through Death Valley I may be able to continue west over the Sierras, through Yosemite, and into California’s Central Valley (which normally isn’t possible this time of year due to a 250 mile long stretch of mountains where all the road crossings are usually snowed in all winter). Before I try that through I want to make one more swing through northern Arizona.

The road from Las Vegas to Arizona passes over the Hoover Dam, or rather it used to before the bypass bridge (just downriver from the dam) was completed last year. Prior to the construction of the bridge the most direct route between the 2 states involved twisting through hairpins down the canyon walls, across the narrow top of the dam, and then back up the switchbacks on the other side. This presented a significant bottleneck considering the growth of Las Vegas, Phoenix, and the traffic between them in the years since the dam was constructed. 9/11 motivated the construction of a separate bridge to reduce the opportunities for an attack or accident on the dam itself. The former main artery across the dam is now just dead-end a tourist road barricaded off on the Arizona side.

The upper walls of Black Canyon provide the more direct evidence of the drought in the Colorado River basin (see my last post for notes about a campground and marina that used to be on the lakeshore but are now isolated a mile away in dry desert): a bleached white “bathtub ring” around the sides of the lake show where the water level reached as recently as a decade ago while plants are colonizing the exposed land under the spillway gates on either side of the dam. The Las Vegas metro area (where 90% of the water comes from Lake Mead and the population has more than doubled since 1990) is currently in the process of drilling a hole to pull water from deeper in the lake to prepare for the possibility of the old intakes ending up above waterline but if more water doesn’t come down the river even this can only be a temporary solution.

Despite the drama caused by its existence the dam itself is a work of art. Designed and built in the 1920′s and 30′s the structure itself and its accents are all in an elegant art deco style. From the massive bronze winged figures seated on either side of the flagpole and the bas-relief on the towers celebrating the many purposes of the dam to the gold doors and inlaid lettering in black marble indicating the mens room no detail was overlooked. The new visitor center and observation tower however are built in a modern style with sharp angles and red colors that are a jarring presence in a canyon where the theme is the smooth curve of white concrete. So much effort was put into making the new bypass bridge match the architecture of the existing dam, it begs the question why such effort wasn’t put into the visitor center.

As for me, I’m heading to a place that time seems to have forgotten: the town of Supai Arizona. An Indian town located 8 miles from the nearest road in a side canyon off of the Grand Canyon, it is one of 2 places left in the United States where mail is delivered by mule (the other is Phantom Ranch, at the bottom of the Grand Canyon). The only way in and out of town is by foot, mule, and helicopter. This is another of those places where very few people can get in due to reservation limits, fortunately that shouldn’t be a problem, this time of year as the tourists don’t seem to come to the desert if it’s less than 100 degrees.

Tags: Red Roamer, Mojave Desert