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I have a trip planned and would love your input in filling in the gaps--
Thursday pm- flying in to Las Vegas; start driving towards Hoover Dam
Friday - Hoover Dam, driving towards Grand Canyon, will spend night at El Tovar
Saturday- will enjoy Grand Canyon (would love suggestions), will then drive towards Sedona (how far is that? how much time do I need at Grand Canyon -- probably will not hike much)
Sunday - Sedona (what to do?), start back to Las Vegas (how far?)
Monday - Thursday will be in Las Vegas, mom is in meeting -- would love ideas for the day (35year old SF), what day trips would be good?
Thursday - fly out
I would love suggestions for the drive (route, suggestions for stops, eating places, hotels in Sedona, tour for Sedona?). Our trip is in mid/late March.
Las Vegas/Grand Canyon/Hoover Dam March Trip
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What time are you arriving at Vegas? It only takes about an hour or less to get to Hoover Dam. You could tour it and head towards the canyon if you got in by one or so. Route 93 will take you right to the dam and then over it and down to I 40 near Kingman, AZ where there are plenty of places to stay near the highway. From Kingman it's about 3 to 4 hours to the Canyon. I would spend at least two days there. You don't need to do a lot of hiking if you don't want but you can walk along the rim trail west of Bright Angel lodge(not far from elTovar) this is mostly flat and has fantastic views all along. When you get tired of walking, there are shuttle stops along the way so you can get on and ride and get off and view at several spectacular spots along the way. There is also. Sedona has nice scenery but the town itself seems to be loaded with little shops like so many tourist places. They do have pink jeep tours that take you to some interesting places in the area, some go to ancient Native American sites etc. As for day trips from Vegas, my favorite is to go to Death Valley. It is about 2 hours or so west of Vegas and has some of the most awesome scenery you are likely to encounter. Closer to Vegas are Red Rock Canyon and Valley of Fire State Park. Both have beautiful scenery and hiking and petroglyphs. You also can do the casino hop or show thing if that suits you.
The original site for the dam was in Boulder Canyon. However, as they did the initial surveys, they found if they moved the dam downstream to Black's Canyon, they would be able to get a bigger reservoir for the same amount of money. But the name "Boulder Dam" stuck and that was what it was originally called. What was Boulder Canyon is now called "the narrows" on Lake Mead.
The dam was built due to the massive flooding of the Colorado River in an attempt to control the flooding. Also, the water of the river was needed for future growth in the cities and agriculture. As an extra benefit, hydro-electrical power generation was included in the design.
California benefited the most from it as that state got the majority of the electrical power and water, not to mention control of the floods along the river. Nevada got screwed the worst, getting the least amount of water and it never had a flood problem.
http://www.explorenevadatours.com/lake-mead.php