Monday 23 September 2024

Monday 23 September

Hoover Dam

On Monday we checked out of Circus Circus early (after Elizabeth took a work call) and got onto the road. We were heading to the North Rim Lodge, where I had made dinner reservations for us for both Monday and Tuesday evenings (it's the only sit-down restaurant on the much more modest North Rim). We got a bit confused about time zones, though, as Las Vegas is on Pacific Time, but the Canyon is on Mountain - but not all of Arizona observers Daylight Savings, and most (all?) of the Indian reservations do not either.

In any event, we knew we could not check in before 3 pm at the Lodge, and our dinner reservation was for 7:15 pm, so we had lots of time. So, we drove the half hour or so to the Hoover dam, getting a decent start around the 10 am check-out time. We would basically have to backtrack to Vegas to drive the 5 hours to the North Rim, though, and would lose the hour when we crossed time zones so didn't have a ton of time to spend there. It was super hot at the dam, topping 100 degrees in bright clear sunny skies. We parked and went into the visitor's center to find we could just get into a tour of the lower power house/generator floor, but didn't have enough time for the full tour.

Having worked in college at a power plant, I really found this tour interesting, where they took us down to the turbine deck and talked about the building of the dam and bypass tunnels and spillways. After the official tour, we walked along the top of the dam for awhile and took pictures before deciding that we were going to be late for dinner.

Nearing the dam

Driving to North Rim Lodge and Dinner

After spending a couple of hours at the Hoover Dam, we started to realize we were going to be very close to our dinner reservation time, possibly even late. So, we got on the road, this time with Brett taking driving duties (Elizabeth had handled all the driving up till now) to try to make up some lost time. Enroute we tried to move our reservation (by phone and online) to a later time, but were unable. In fact, it really seemed impossible by phone, though Elizabeth did talk to the folks at the Lodge, they seemed to not be able to communicate with the restaurant staff.

Fortunately the speed limits are quite generous out west, and the road was mostly straight highway, and I continually made up time, minute-by-minute. The last 60 miles or so are really just for the entering the park on the north rim, so there wasn't a ton of traffic there, and I was able to pass most of what there was and still keep a good pace up, only to find once we arrived that we were an hour early! There, in fact, was no additional time zone shift, so we had time to check in, unpack our bags, and get to dinner in good time.

Our room was a tiny cabin with no air conditioning nor TV, a twin and full sized bed in one modest-sized room, and a tiny little bathroom with corner shower. Fortunately, the North Rim Lodge is at 8,000' elevation, so it stays pretty comfortable during the day and cools off rapidly in the evening, so we just opened the windows while we were at dinner and it cooled right off (in fact we had to close then about midnight each night because it would get too cold otherwise!).

The North Rim was really great, quiet and quaint, with a very small footprint and very few (and older) guests. I'm really glad we went to this side first, because it was so peaceful and pretty, with enough amenities to be comfortable, but not feel crowded or touristy at all. We had two full days at the North Rim before setting out (early Wednesday) for the Rim2Rim attempt.