Hoover Dam

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Photos of Hoover Dam, taken several years ago before the new bridge opened. I took these earlier on the same day I went to Red Rock Canyon, over on the other side of Vegas, and failed to take any photos of the city itself. In any case, the dam looks kind of cool in an Art Deco sort of way, and the hydropower keeps the lights on in Vegas, although the dam's turned out to be not so fabulous from an environmental standpoint.

As with Red Rocks, I'm pretty sure I need to go back and take some photos with a Real Camera, and in this case I also need photos of the bridge. And by "need", I mean it would be a logical extension of this weird ongoing photoblog hobby I've ended up with.

Red Rock Canyon

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A few photos from Red Rock Canyon, at the western edge of suburban Las Vegas. This is the dramatic and colorful bit of rugged scenery you often see while flying in to McCarran. These photos, though, were taken the first time I visited Vegas, while travelling on a sort of hippie tour bus, which seemed like a great idea at the time. I was a bit self-righteous back then and turned up my nose at Vegas itself -- an opinion I've long since been cured of -- and I took no photos of the city. In retrospect I wish I'd done that, since the place has changed dramatically since the early 1990s, and it's be fun to see what it used to be like. But hey, those were the days of film photography, 36 shots per roll at best, and I wasn't exactly rolling in dough at the time.

In any case, the tour bus spent an afternoon here and we hiked around a bit. My recollection is that the place was more interesting to photograph than it was to hike at. I keep meaning to go back with a Real Camera, but I somehow haven't gotten around to it yet. The Clark County bus system ends just short of Red Rock Canyon, and I never seem to end up renting a car when I'm in town. So maybe next time. Still, I think a few of these shots turned out ok even though I had a lame camera and had no idea what I was doing. Most of the credit here goes to the scenery, not to me.