Las Vegas - Cooking at the Hoover Dam and Lake Mead

The next couple of hours riding through the desert would be some of the most beautiful as well as excruciating riding I've ever done.

The forecast was for a whopping 117 degrees in Las Vegas,

and I left Mt. Charleston probably around 10:30 am, with about an hour and half's worth of riding to get to the famous Lake Mead, the beautifully scenic location of the Hoover Dam.

The riding was mostly highway riding through the desert, and there were NO bikes on the road besides myself.

It's a weird sensation, riding along with a mesh jacket in the one hundred teens...

You can be going over a hundred miles an hour (which I may have done on these empty highways),

and still feel like the air is stuffy in your helmet.

Finally, I reached a scenic viewpoint announcing the historic man-made Lake Mead.

The water was so crystalline blue, that I drove the bike up the handicap ramp, onto a pedestrian lookout along the highway, much to the amusement and chagrin of the people already there.

The vantage point was so exquisite, and with colors and topography unlike anything I'd ever seen before.

A few passer's-by were kind enough to snap some pics of me.

I did not stop to take any more pics though, as it was far too hot to stop.

Once I got to the dam, the temperature not only significantly rose,

but there started to be traffic everywhere, and the only thing worse than riding in 120something degree weather, is riding stop-start traffic at 120 degree weather.

I finally pulled up to a rest stop on the Arizona side, bought and drank 4, two dollar waters from a concession trailer, and looked for a bit of shade to look out over the Hoover Dam.