Cape to Milan

Shortly after the trip to Zion, and after a work trip to Vegas, I was off to Tucson to visit my mom and stepfather, who were holed up there for the winter.

(We’ve already covered Tucson and it’s surroundings in pretty good detail, so no posts about that!)

First stop on the drive: the Hoover Dam. And, thanks to my characteristic lollygagging in Vegas, I was rewarded with pretty amazing light! So I figured it was worth a quick post.

Hoover Dam, under the shadow of the new interstate bridge over the Colorado River (apparently called the Mike O’Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge)

The clocks on either side of the Colorado, bringing order to one of the most confusing time zone borders in the US. In the summer, they show the same time; in winter, Arizona is an hour ahead (and making it clear my six hour drive to Tucson was going to be mostly in the dark!).

Lake Mead sits roughly 150′ below full pool, thanks to drought conditions and, more importantly, overuse of the Colorado River’s water. Sadly, the river only reaches the Gulf of California once in a blue moon–once in many blue moons, to be precise.

The Art Deco architecture is definitely one of the things that makes this a really cool stop!