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For a lasting first impression, stop at the overlook on Highway 93 as you approach the dam from Las Vegas. The vista point is often crowded, but stop anyway: the sight of 3.2 million cu yards (2.6 million cu m) of concrete, standing 727 ft (221 m) high and erected by thousands of workers laboring around the clock for four years, is truly awe-inspiring.

Audiovisual and theater presentations as well as multimedia exhibits explain the processes and perils involved in building this eighth wonder of the modern world. An overlook on top of the center provides an eagle-eye view of the dam, Lake Mead, and the Black Canyon.

The tours include a descent to the fifth floor, where you can see the dam’s huge turbine generators in operation.

The dam’s lake is the largest man-made body of water in the USA. Its 700 miles (1,120 km) of shoreline boast forests, canyons, and flower-rich meadows; its waters abound with fish. Boulder Beach offers the best swimming.

The Colorado River flows lazily below the dam, so rafting is pleasant rather than of the white-knuckle variety. The trip takes a little more than three hours to make the 12-mile (19-km) trip to Willow Beach. Look out for petroglyphs carved in the rock, and ringbolts: in the days before the dam these were used to winch steam boats through Ringbolt Rapids.

The lake’s shores come to colorful life from the deck of a boat. You’ll see sandy beaches and rocks of every hue. There’s wildlife, too – look out for burros, jack rabbits, lizards, and the occasional bighorn sheep.

An unusual underwater scene greets divers: in addition to fish, there is a submerged factory where the dam’s concrete was mixed, and the drowned community of St. Thomas. Take a trip with a local company; certified divers can rent scuba gear.

The dam and the people who built it are the focus of this museum, housed in the historic Boulder Dam Hotel (see Boulder City Historic District). Don’t miss the film chronicling the dam’s construction. Memorabilia, photos, and posters give insights into life in the 1930s.

Up to 8,000 dam workers were housed here, and although many of the buildings have disappeared, cottages 1–12 look much as they did when they were built.

Walk back into 1930s America. The arcaded, southwestern-style buildings were the precursors of today’s shopping plazas. Boulder Dam Hotel, by contrast, is in southern colonial style.