My Vacation - Lot of Pics !!

so, at the last minute, my wife and i decided that we needed to get out of town and go on a little vacation over the thanksgiving holiday.

we chose this sleepy little marina off of the colorado river called CottonWood Cove. my dad and i used to go there when i was a little kid so i have always had fond memories of the place. in the off season, there is no one there so its a nice and quiet place to get away from it all.

we didnt have any specific plans; we figured that we would do whatever came to mind once we got there.

here are some pics of our journey (over 100, actually)


stuck in traffic on the 15 freeway before heading up the pass


coming into barstow


heading towards las vegas


who has actually stopped in yermo?


almost to baker


the thermometer in baker is sort of a tourist trap. but once youve seen it...






almost at the turn off to cottonwood cove


theres the turn off


thats the whole town of nipton


you blink and you miss it. there is a store and a biker bar there.


when ever my dad and i came to cottonwood cove, we would always stop here in searchlight and eat at the restaurant in this casino. so, my wife and i had to eat here as well




leaving searchlight and heading down the hill to the river


almost there


the river is coming into view




we made it. here is the area map in the tiny visitors center.


you are here


here is the marina. in the foreground is the hotel and in the background is the store and cafe.


the docks. you can rent boats here too


the cafe and store.


view from our hotel room




wifes head


docks looking out from the store


heading out to fish.... man, i miss that.


there were thunderstorms off in the distance and it formed a rainbow.






the docks at night. it was so dark and peaceful out there.


sunrise on the river.


view from the cafe


wife before coffee


wife during coffee


wife after coffee


i got in a little rc rock crawling









my wife suggested that we go to hoover dam since we were close. since i had never been there, i thought that was a great idea. so off we went....

this is that new bridge that they are building to connect nevada and arizona. its a fricken huge undertaking.










the dam is huge. the pictures dont do it justice.


new visitors center


that machine on the right is an original crane that was used to build the dam. it is still in use for maintenance purposes.




181 pound bolt used on the generators.




misc items from the '30s






looking down river past the generator rooms.




me


wifey



we took a tour of the inside of the dam which included walking through the central part of the dam, the generator room, and one of the input pipes to the generators.

this is a tunnel that was dug out to grant access to one of the input pipes.




one of the four, 50 foot diameter water pipes. these move 80000 cubic feet of water a second. the room and floor was vibrating and shaking from the amount of water rushing by. it really made you feel small.


diagram of the dam system


nevada side generator room. each of these generators weighs 600 tons and you are only seeing the top 1/3 of each generator here.


one of the 2, 300-ton cranes used to lift out the generators.




you could see the generator shafts spining


there was a maintenance worker walking through the room. his size really shows the scale of these generators.






this generator supplies all of the internal power that the dam needs.


many of the passage ways were originally built with the 1930's art deco style.




heading down into the dam




our tour guide.
the opening behind him is one of 4 vent shafts that open out to the face of the dam. we got to look out it... sweet !!






view from the vent shaft.


there was a service tunnel in the vent shaft that was covered. we had to walk over it to pass through. we couldnt see the bottom of it.


looking straight down.


corridor to the "emergency" exit.


following the tour guide.


the emergency exit is an 1800 step stair case. we were in the middle of the dam, so there were about 900 steps up and 900 steps down. the angle of the star case is 60 degrees. the view in this picture is looking almost straight up.


this is almost straight down


from top of dam




the generator rooms. the right one is on the nevada side and was the one that we were in.


more on the second post...

 

on the way back from the dam, we took a road near cottonwood cove to do some off roading. the pictures dont really show how rough the road was, but there were a few times when 4x4 was needed. there were some areas in which some flooding had washed out the road and we were going through deep sand in the wash. i wish we had all day to expore out there. there are some old abandonded mining areas that would be fun to see.










my baby driving my baby.
or, as my wife put it, "a pink taco driving a silver taco"




heading home.... lots of traffic


i figured you all would get a kick out of this... an old school land crusier.






ok.. i am a numbers nerd.
i had the cruise control set at 75 and i was getting over 26 mpg on flat highway.


there were extended periods of time that i would get over 30mpg. this was on a slight down grade.


heh... but going up the passes, i got as low as 7mpg. overall, i got about 20mpg


thanks for looking

 

Awesome pics!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I stopped at the Hoover Dam on the way to Vegas last year. You're right, pictures really don't do justice. They had the first couple pillars up on the bridge when I was there. The people working on that thing must have balls the size of coconuts and made of steel.

Great pics!

 

Nice pics! I have always wanted to check out Hoover Dam! Thanks for sharing!

 

Nice.. A little exploring is what i do when traveling to help release stress and pass time

 

awesome pics! looks like you guys had fun.

 

Now that looks like fun!! Thanks for sharing.

 

thanks all

 

Great pics.

 

Cool...

Oh, and I've been to Yermo more times than I care to remember...

 

Welcome everyone. I am your dam guide, Arnie. Now I'm about to take you through a fully functional power plant, so please, no one wander off the dam tour and please take all the dam pictures you want. Now are there any dam questions?

Sorry had to do it

 

LOL... ya... fortunately, they kept that to a minimum

 

Great pictures. I love Cottonwood Cove. The view of the Hoover Dam from the lower side of the river is awesome too if you ever get a chance to see it from that POV.

 

Nice write-up and photos. Unplanned Road Trips are awesome.

 

I hate to be a jerk but with all the weirdos out there, your privacy isn't as secure as you might think. You may want to exclude personal items from this post such as pics of your wife and license plate info, you really don't know who's looking at this. Cool trip, though.

 

Nice pics man. Looks like a good trip.

 

AWESOME pics man! Looks like yall had a good time!

 

Looks like it was a great trip, and with all the pics I feel like I went on the dam tour too.

 

Awesome! That little marina seems like a cool place.