HOOVER DAM · NEVADA / ARIZONA
Black Canyon concrete, the bypass bridge, the river underneath.
Powerplant tours, bridge walks, kayak runs and the day-trip combos from Las Vegas. Grand Canyon West, Lake Mead, Valley of Fire and the desert stops in between.
Only at the dam
Three things you can’t do anywhere else.
Photo stops at the visitor centre exist at every American landmark. These three don’t. The walkway 900ft above the river, the descent into a working 1936 powerplant, the kayak run out of the canyon below. Build the day around one of them.
From above
Walk The Bypass Bridge
The Mike O’Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge crosses the Colorado 900ft above the river, the second-highest concrete-arch bridge in the western hemisphere. You stand on the pedestrian walkway, dam to your right, canyon dropping straight down to your left. There is no equivalent vantage anywhere else on the river.
- 1 Hoover Dam with Walk On Top Tour and Seven Magic Mountains Stop
- 2 Small Group Hoover Dam: From Above, On Top and Below Tour
- 3 Hoover Dam Walk-On-Top Tour w/ Seven Magic Mountains & Vegas Sign
Inside the dam
Down Into The Powerplant
The 30-storey elevator drops through the dam wall into the canyon, then a tunnel cuts to the U-shaped powerplant. You walk past the 1936-vintage generators while they spin under your feet. The only public tour in the world of a continuously-running hydroelectric station of this scale.
- 1 Hoover Dam Inside Tour from Las Vegas, WiFi
- 2 Las Vegas: Hoover Dam Inside VIP Exploration Tour, WiFi
- 3 Hoover Dam Inside and Out
On the river
Paddle The Black Canyon
Permitted operators launch kayaks below the dam wall and float the Colorado through twelve miles of Black Canyon, past Sauna Cave, Emerald Cave and the natural hot-spring side canyons. No motorised vessel allowed, no replicating this stretch upstream. The river is bath-warm in summer.
- 1 Hoover Dam & Hot Springs Kayak Tour with Lunch & Expert Guide
- 2 Hoover Dam & Black Canyon Full-Day Guided Kayak Tour
- 3 Hoover Dam Kayak Tour with Shuttle – Hot Springs & Emerald Cave
The from-Vegas classic
If you’ve only got one day out of Vegas, start here.
The Grand Canyon West run with a Hoover Dam stop is the day-trip most visitors actually take. One long sweep through Mojave Desert and back, two big landmarks, the canyon and the dam in a single loop.
The classics
Hoover Dam’s Most Popular Tours
Grand Canyon West, the powerplant descent, the bypass walk, the river run. The Vegas-based days that get booked the most.
Pair it with
One dam, six day-trips.
Grand Canyon West for the headline view. Lake Mead for the water. Valley of Fire for the painted sandstone. Red Rock for the easy escarpment. Seven Magic Mountains for the photo stop. The dam itself for the engineering.
Four angles
Four ways to see the dam.
Above it in a helicopter, on top of it from the bypass walkway, inside it through the powerplant tunnels, or below it on the river. Pick the angle, the tours follow.
By tour type
Or pick the kind of day you want.
Powerplant tour if you want to go inside the dam. Bridge walk if you want the canyon view from above. Kayak run if you want to see the wall from the river. Helicopter, coach, small group, private, VIP, or the express half-day if Vegas is tight on time.
If the Canyon’s on your list
Vegas to the Canyon and back.
Most travellers come to Hoover Dam as a stop on a Grand Canyon West day. Coach for budget, small group for pace, helicopter for the headline view. We’d book these three across the three formats.
Make it a desert day
Pair the dam with something else.
Valley of Fire’s painted sandstone, Red Rock’s escarpment, Seven Magic Mountains’ towering boulders. Combo days that give you more than just the dam and a parking lot.
Tight on Vegas time
In and out before lunch.
When the dam is one item on a packed Strip itinerary. Half-day pickups that run there, drive the bypass, hit the iconic viewpoints and have you back for an afternoon show.
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