Hoover Dam / Vegas Baby!

Greetings!

After leaving one of the most remote parts of the country - Great Basin National Park - we shifted gears and decided after 3+ months in nature, it was time for a night on the town.  Our next campground was in Apple Valley, Utah in close proximity to Zion, Bryce, and . . . Las Vegas!  We arrived at Apple Valley on Saturday afternoon - it's a beautiful area and lovely campsite with gorgeous red mountains in the background. 

On Sunday morning, we left the Airstream in Apple Valley and headed southwest to Las Vegas - a little over 2 hours.  We decided to visit the Hoover Dam first (it's about 30-40 minutes from Vegas) and it was so cool!  We took the tour, which included going underground, and then walked around the dam itself.  The Hoover Dam is a massive, concrete arch-gravity dam spanning the Arizona-Nevada border in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River.  Completed in 1935 during the Great Depression, it was an engineering marvel designed for flood control, irrigation, and hydroelectric power generation.  It is quite a site and you can find more information here.  

Diversion Tunnel

Electric Turbines in the Nevada Powerhouse 

Black Canyon

Inlet Towers

The Power Houses at the bottom of the dam

After a few hours at the dam, we headed into Las Vegas, checked into our hotel, and got ready for an evening of dinner and the Wizard of Oz at the Sphere.  The Sphere opened about 2 years ago and is one of the coolest, most high tech event venues in the world.  The movie is a re-imagined augmented version of the classic film with some scenes expanded and characters added using AI performance generation technology.  This version is 75 minutes (the original movie was 102 minutes) and incorporated immersive elements using AI and 4D effects like wind, fog and scents - the twister scene was something else!  

We enjoyed a delicious dinner at the Mercato della Pescheria and then headed over to the Sphere early so we could check everything out.  We walked through the Palazzo and the Venetian and there was a fun display of the show.

Walking outside of the Sphere before the show was so neat.  The legs / ruby slippers on the Wicked Witch of the East stuck out from the Sphere and made for some great photo ops!

 

Inside the venue was quite something!  It's huge and the seating is very steep.  

And the stage in front looked like a traditional stage with hanging speakers and surrounding sound panels - but the entire wall and ceiling was the screen - it was like an Imax theater times 10!  The next 2 photos were taken after the show as we were walking out.

It was pretty spectacular and if you have a chance to go, we would recommend it.  We will admit, however, that after 20 hours, it was time to leave Las Vegas and head back to our cozy and fun Airstream life.  After a significant Walmart run, we returned to our campsite on Monday afternoon and started our final planning for Zion and Bryce.  More on that in our next post.

Thanks again for following along - we appreciate you!  Love, Jen & Paul