Hoover Dam and the bypass bridge

6 min read Updated November 2026 Compare all tours

Hoover Dam holds back the Colorado River in Black Canyon, where the river forms the border between Nevada and Arizona. Reclamation, the federal agency that runs it, measures 726.4 feet from the foundation rock to the roadway on the crest. Concrete was poured from June 1933 to May 1935, and the dam was finished by 1 March 1936. Lake Mead lies behind it.

For anyone driving to Grand Canyon West, the dam is close to the route. The road from Las Vegas runs through Boulder City and crosses into Arizona on the bypass bridge just downstream. Grand Canyon West puts the stop about 40 minutes from Las Vegas and suggests 30 to 60 minutes there if you want to look around. Our page on getting to Grand Canyon West covers the rest of the drive.

Driving in and the security checkpoint

Reclamation’s directions from Las Vegas follow I-11 south (signed with US-93 and US-95) through Boulder City to Exit 2, then State Route 172 towards the dam. A mile before the dam, a checkpoint on that road is staffed around the clock. Vehicles are inspected there, and visitors who decline the inspection are not allowed further.

The dam is not a through road. If you are heading on to Arizona, you return towards Nevada and cross on the bridge. Cars park in the garage on the Nevada side for $10 per vehicle (as of November 2026). Motorhomes and vehicles with trailers use Lot 9 on the Arizona side, also $10, or the free Lots 13 and 14.

At the buildings, metal items go through screening and bags are checked. Reclamation does not allow weapons or knives of any size, pocketknives included, in any Hoover Dam building, and drones are prohibited.

The visitor center and the tours on site

The dam itself is open to the public daily from 5 am to 9 pm, Pacific time. The Visitor Center and the tours run daily from 9 am to 5 pm, except on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. Admission ends at 4:15 pm, and the last tour leaves at 4:10 pm.

Children aged 3 and under go free. Visitors must be over 16 to join a tour on their own. Reclamation does not sell Guided Dam Tour tickets online, so on a busy day the slots can go before you arrive. The current times and fees are on Reclamation’s Hoover Dam tour page.

The Mike O’Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge

The bypass bridge was dedicated on 14 October 2010 and opened to traffic later that month. The Federal Highway Administration gives its length as 1,900 feet and describes it as the longest single-span concrete arch bridge in the western hemisphere. The arch alone spans 1,060 feet. It was part of a $240 million bypass that took through traffic off the dam.

A walkway on the bridge looks down on the face of the dam. According to Reclamation’s crossing guide, you reach it from a pedestrian plaza inside the security zone, with parking for about 70 vehicles on the Nevada side just past the checkpoint, and only during daylight hours. The guide dates from 2013, so check access on the day.

Half-day tours from Las Vegas

Without a car, a half-day tour is the easiest way in. The shortest takes three hours in a 14-seat van. It parks by the bridge, walks up to the bridge walkway, stops at a Lake Mead lookout and then leaves about 25 minutes on top of the dam. The Hoover Dam entry ticket is included, and the exact pickup time arrives by text the evening before.

Reviewers praise the guides for their facts and the extra stops, such as a detour to see mountain rams, and most find three hours enough. The criticism concerns pickups: the operator may ask you to wait at a nearby hotel instead of your own, and one guest sent to a different hotel writes that the tour left without him.

If you want to go inside, look for the power plant. One tour of five and a half hours combines a guided walk over the dam, the power plant with its generator rooms, a photo stop at the bypass bridge and a lunch at the Omelet House on the edge of Las Vegas. Another, of four hours, includes a live presentation, the exhibition galleries and the observation deck before going down to the generators. If Reclamation restricts access to the generator room, that tour switches to the bridge and the Hoover Dam Museum in Boulder City. It does not take children under 3, and only folding wheelchairs.

The longest small-group option, at six hours, covers the dam from the bridge, from the top on a guided walk and from below on the power plant tour, with a Visitor Center ticket included. A tour of similar length adds the power plant tunnels and the Lakeview Overlook over Boulder Basin.

Seeing the dam from Lake Mead

A 90-minute narrated cruise on the Desert Princess, a three-deck paddle-wheeler, crosses Lake Mead and follows the river into Black Canyon up to the dam. The two lower decks are enclosed and air-conditioned, and the top deck is open. There is no transport from Las Vegas, check-in starts 30 minutes before departure, and the National Park Service pass you need to enter the Lake Mead area is not included. Below the dam, the same canyon is where kayak and raft trips run; see the Colorado River page for those.

The dam on a Grand Canyon West day trip

Most coach tours from Las Vegas to the West Rim include the dam, but usually as a photo stop of the dam and the bridge on the way out or back. A few go further: one small-group day trip includes admission to the power plant tour, with about two hours at the dam after the canyon, and another includes the walk-on-top tour. If the dam matters to you as much as the canyon, read the itinerary of each day trip from Las Vegas before you book.