Photo Tips Las Vegas – Hoover Dam and Lake Mead

Start this day tour at Hoover Dam and return via Lake Mead Boulevard in the early evening as the city lights up. Due to its elevated location, this route, where it comes out of the mountains, is particularly suitable for overview shots of the city center located in the valley.

The dam is a good 64 km (40 mi) south of Las Vegas, and it usually takes 45 minutes to get there from the city center. The engineering feat that the Hoover Dam still represents today, along with its location in the impressive landscape, is likely what draws large numbers of people to the site.

Late morning and shadowless midday, when the sun shines into the canyon, are good photo times for the dam and its surroundings. The structure itself may be spectacular to look at, but it is difficult to capture from its immediate surroundings, even with a 24 mm wide-angle lens. Too many power lines block the view, and the best spots can only be reached on foot along the busy road that winds its way through the red rocks. A good overview photo is best taken from the highest Hoover Dam Lookout on the Arizona side at parking lot No. 3. From parking lot No. 2, you can see the dam wall from the lakeside.

The only way to see the dam inside is on a guided tour, which is always full. Analog photographers should equip themselves for this occasion with a fluorescent filter against the green tint of the fluorescent tubes. In the digital age, it is sufficient to change the white balance accordingly. The tour also takes you to the outside of the dam at its foot for a wide-angle shot (at least 24 mm) of the dam wall from below.

Only the Mike O’Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge allows you to photograph the entire dam and the lake behind it. It has been carrying Highway 93 (here identical to I-11 and alternatively referred to as the Hoover Dam Bypass, Purple Heart Highway or Great Basin Highway) past the Hoover Dam since 2010 and avoids the many hairpin bends. On its north side, you can cross the gorge on foot and have a clear view of the dam and its surroundings. The pedestrian trail can be reached from the Mike O’Callaghan – Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge Plaza on Hoover Dam Access Road. At midday, the sun is behind you and illuminates the dam and gorge most favorably.

The elevated Lakeview Overlook is worth a visit in the afternoon, when the sun in your back gives the rocks a little extra red. The great contrast between the blue lake water and the earth-colored, sometimes lava-black, rocks is particularly photogenic here.

If you have a whole extra day, I highly recommend setting off on the 5 km (3 mi) Gold Strike Hot Springs Trail. It leads through a spectacularly colorful rocky landscape and some climbing passages to the bottom of a canyon, which it then follows to the Gold Strike Hot Spring directly on the Colorado River. Getting to this shore is more than worth the effort. If you are coming from the west on Highway 93, do not turn left at the traffic circle to Hoover Dam Access Road, but keep right to Goldstrike Canyon Road. This leads directly to the trailhead.

Back to Las Vegas, first follow Lakeshore Road north through the red rock landscape. It runs close to the lake and always offers good views of the blue waters of Lake Mead. In Rainbow Garden, already in the Sunrise Mountain Management Area, you will again come across bright red rocks. At the end, turn right onto Northshore Road (Rt-167) and Lake Mead Boulevard (Rt-147). The highest elevations are Frenchman Mountain, Lava Butte and Sunrise Mountain. The route now descends through this mountain range back into the Las Vegas Valley. Just before the first houses start to appear, you can easily stop to the right or left of the road and set up a tripod with a 400 mm telephoto lens to capture the Las Vegas skyline against the backdrop of the Spring Mountains. This is a fantastic motif for the early evening when the sky still has color! Another good position for a similar picture is the corner of Lake Mead Drive (Rt-146) and Las Vegas Boulevard at the south end of the city. Due to the lower location, however, the foreground cannot be controlled as well here, and you inevitably have more sky in the picture.- This is advantageous when a breathtaking sunset nears, transforming the sky into a radiant red hue.

Next Photo Tips Las Vegas – Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area

Previous Photo Tips Las Vegas – Motifs on Las Vegas Boulevard

Previous Photo Tips Las Vegas and vicinity

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