A broken foothold, and subsequent back injury, brought last year’s hiking adventure outside Las Vegas to an abrupt – and painful – halt. Now, with my back working again, we decided to return to Nevada to finish some of the hikes we missed last year. It should be noted that none of this year’s hikes involved climbing on wet, weak sandstone. 😡

We started with a leisurely stroll along the route of one of the railroads used to build Hoover Dam. Last year this trail was not fully open due to a failed tunnel. And the recreation area itself was closed due to an idiotically petulant 🙄 government shutdown. This time both the tunnel and the government were open, so having to wait a year actually worked in our favor. 🙂

Despite a pesky overcast sky, this was a fun hike that combined big views of Lake Mead with a fascinating piece of Western history. We passed through five tunnels, each 25 feet in diameter to accommodate the huge penstock sections and large equipment required by the dam. Then we extended the hike (to 7.5 miles round-trip) so we could get a view of the sheer face of Hoover Dam. We’d gotten a moderately early start so we didn’t run into holiday crowds (this is a very popular hike) until we were headed back. Fall through Spring is definitely the time to do this hike, as it can be screaming hot here in summer.

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