Boulder Beach Campground - Hovoer Dam | Full-Time RV Life

Hi everybody, welcome to Zephyr Travels. I'm Randy. And I'm Diane. And this week we are coming to you from Lake Mead. We are staying at Boulder Beach Campground. This is in the National Recreation Area here. And what did you think of this campground, Diane? This is the second time we've been here. We were here last year. A little bit earlier in the year. And this is the end of March. The weather has been beautiful. We did have a little rain. And I guess the only downside would be the wind. But I think this is common for this time of the year. But this is a nice area. It's probably one of our favorite campgrounds. This is a great campground. It is a first come, first serve. And we found that since we've been here, it's usually full. Especially on the weekend. The best days probably to get here are Monday and Tuesday because they didn't seem to fill up those nights. But every other night it's been full. And if you come here, you want to get here no later than probably 1 o'clock or so. Because people will leave and the campsites do not stay empty for very long. Unfortunately, there's no hookups. There is a lot of water spigots close by and there's many throughout the campground. And most of the sites have some level of sun. So if you have solar, you can use the solar. You're not supposed to use generators, but we did notice some people using generators here. But the best part about this is it's $20 a night, but only $10 if you have a National Parks Pass. Or if you're a senior. Your senior National Parks Pass. But there's a lot to do here. We did a hike and we went up along what is called the Rural Pass. And we enjoyed that. But you go through five tunnels and we'll show you some video of that now. Today we're hiking the Rural Bed Trail that goes to Hoover Dam. It's about a three and a half mile hike one way. And how many tunnels are there? Five I think it said. There's five tunnels on this trail, which should be interesting. Now this Rural Bed was put in here to haul supplies in to build Hoover Dam. So it is a somewhat historic. Let's walk through the first of the five tunnels. That means we've done a mile on the hike so far. Coming up on the second one is right here. We made it through the five tunnels and we're going to turn around. The trail does continue all the way to Hoover Dam. But this is as far as we're going to go today. Well, we finished the walk. We went through all five tunnels. About, I would say, six miles. Wow, really? I would think so. Up and back? Up and back. Three miles each way. Yeah. It was a nice afternoon for a hike. Yeah, it was. I mean, it's later in the day, so it's starting to get cooler. Yeah, and we started a little bit later, probably around three o'clock. Yeah, so it was a little warm then, but it's cooled off quite a bit since we've gotten back. It was a nice, comfortable walk. I think we're all tired, including the dogs. Yeah, especially the dogs. Yeah, but they were good. Yeah, I think they enjoyed it. All right, let's head back. We probably walked at about halfway. We did take the dogs. The path is very nice. It's not rocky at all, so it's very smooth and easy to walk on. Yeah, you could really ride your bikes on it, and you wouldn't even have to have a mountain bike. And you can go all the way to Hoover Dam. Yes. Yeah, we didn't go that far, like Diane said. We just went through the three tunnels. About six miles. Five tunnels. Five tunnels, yes. Five tunnels. We went through all the tunnels, which was about three miles. Yeah. There is a visitor center here. And also, you're not far from Boulder City. And you're also not far from Hoover Dam. Yeah, which we also took a ride to the other day. And we'll show you a video of that. Today, we're going to take a ride into Old Boulder City and also to the Hoover Dam. Historic Bumble has a real 50s vibe to it. Yeah, we just passed some 50s vehicles. It appears that the owners are having a happy hour in the local park. Yeah, but there's also the motels that have the original 50s marquees that identify where they are. And then the downtown area really feels vintage. Right. And now the storefronts have been made into restaurants, bars, little antique shops. Yeah, it's really another neat historic town to visit. Yeah, yeah. So if you're coming to the Boulder area and you're staying at any of the national parks or whatever, you do want to make sure you take at least a couple minutes to swing downtown, check it out. It's well worth the little trip. Right. Definitely. Yep. When you're walking downtown Boulder, be sure to check out the public arts. It's part of the walking tour. There's a bunch of these little statues like the one behind me here that has a plaque and it tells you a little bit about the history of Boulder. For a little more history, you can go into the Boulder Hotel, which has a museum, and you can check out the past of the history of Boulder. Behind us is Hoover Dam. We're trying to keep the dam jokes to a minimum, but we can't help it. You ready to take the dam tour? Yes, we're going to take a tour. There really is a lot, and I'm surprised, a lot to see here. I wasn't aware that it's such a built-up area. Yeah, I think they've really added a lot to it since the last time we were here about 20 years ago. Yeah, so we're going to take a walk around. Yep, check it out. While you're here, you can take one of the dam tours if you'd like. We're not sure if we're going to do that. We're going to check to see how much it is. We just went into the gift shop where you can get all your dam shirts and souvenirs. And we bought a few dam souvenirs. And they also have a snack bar where we got a drink and you can get a dam burger or a dam hot dog or whatever type of... Salad, a wrap, a sandwich. Yeah, whatever you might want. A drink. We only got a drink. We only got a drink, yeah. So we'll eat later. Yeah. But this is all new since the last time we were here. Yeah, and it's very nice. Yeah, they've done a nice job of making this more touristy, I guess, but more of a place to go. Right, more visitor friendly. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I mean, before it was pretty much you'd drive across the bridge. You maybe stopped for the tour. You know, got out and walked it a little bit. But that was about all you could really do. Now there's a lot more here. We haven't really been able to check out what the tour prices are. I guess that's down a little bit. So, not sure if we'll do that. We may save that for when we come back. Another time. You never know, we'll get back in this area again. Right. But it is a very nice area, and for being a Tuesday afternoon, it is quite crowded. Yeah, very busy here. I guess we'll enjoy our drink and then continue on our walk. Yep, we'll continue. The plant here commemorates the Hoover Dam mascot, which was a dog. He was found as a puppy at the work camp. And the dog traveled to and from the dam site with them and spent days visiting the many work areas. The dog was known to follow the workers throughout the work site, up and down the different ladders and into the different areas. And he would even ride the elevator up and down and bark when he wanted to get off. The workers liked to feed him, and he was starting to get a little bit overweight, so the commissionary made a meal for him every day and put it in a paper sack, and he would carry it to work with him. Sadly, on February 21, 1941, the dog was sleeping underneath a truck, and the driver didn't notice and, sadly, ran over the dog. Some people say this is the best damn view of the place. No, Randy, this is the best damn view. So this, other than a little bit of boondocking, this is what we've been doing since we left California? Yeah. Yeah, we've kind of needed a little bit of a chance to slow down and not be quite as busy as we've been for the last couple of months, and this has been very enjoyable. Right. You're also not very far from Las Vegas, and this trip we didn't really drive into Las Vegas. We did that last year, so it was just kind of a quiet week, and pretty much it was just some down time for us. Well, we hope you enjoyed this video. If you did, what should they do? Please give it a thumbs up and subscribe to our channel, Suffer Travels. We post new videos on a weekly basis, so hit that bell for notifications so you don't miss a video. Right. So, until next time, we will see everyone down the road. Take care, everybody. Bye. Bye.