Monthly Archives: February 2011

Views of the Phoenix Valley From South Mountain

Posted by Dan Mitchell on

I shot these photos February 12, 2011 from Dobbins Lookout on South Mountain, which sits about 1,200 feet above the valley floor below. The South Mountain Preserve is the largest municipal park in the world, and includes a lot of hiking, mountain biking, and equestrian trails. Best of all, there are no entrance fees to the park.

The photos below show:

  • a U.S. Airways Airbus (most likely an A320) departing Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport (Airport Code KPHX),
  • a view of downtown Phoenix, including Chase Field with its roof open, and
  • Camelback Mountain, approximately 15 miles northeast. Sky Harbor Airport (KPHX), including its easily identifiable Control Tower, is visible in the foreground.

South Mountain Park Preserve Information: http://phoenix.gov/recreation/rec/parks/preserves/locations/south/index.html

Thank you for stopping by!

Like what you see?  Please leave a comment below.

-Dan, a.k.a. PHX Photo

The Hoover Dam- One of the Wonders of the Modern World

Posted by Dan Mitchell on

I took a trip to Las Vegas with Lynn and her family earlier this week, and on the way back, we stopped at Hoover Dam for some quick photos.

I can spout off all sorts of facts and figures pulled from the internet:

  • The Hoover Dam is a wedge-shaped arch-gravity dam more than two football fields (660 feet) wide at the bottom, but only 45 feet at the top;
  • The Hoover Dam is taller than a 70-story building (at over 726 feet from top to bottom);
  • The Hoover Dam contains over 3.25 million cubic yards of concrete- enough to pave a two-lane highway from San Francisco to New York;
  • The Hoover Dam’s 1,200-foot span formed the artificial lake- Lake Mead- that is used as a reservoir as well as for recreation;
  • Lake Mead has a surface area of 247 square miles and a maximum depth of over 500 feet, with a total water volume of 28,500,000 acre-feet.

But until you actually see it, it can be difficult to appreciate the enormity of those numbers.

As the old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words, so here are 10,000 or so words worth of photos taken by yours truly.

The Downstream Face of The Hoover Dam and the U-Shaped Powerhouse taken from the new Mike O’Callaghan – Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge.  Lake Mead is in the background.  The Powerhouse houses 17 generators with a maximum capacity of 2,080 megawatts.

Access to the Nevada Upper and Lower Penstocks.

Access to the Arizona Upper and Lower Penstocks (For my fellow ‘Transformers’ fans out there, behind this door is the All Spark as well as NBE-1, aka Megatron).

One of the two 30-foot bronze “Winged Figures of the Republic”.  Tradition is to rub the statues’ toes for luck, which explains why the toes don’t have the same weathered patina as the rest of the statue.

View of Lake Mead from the Hoover Dam.  Lake Mead’s average water level is around 1,173 feet above sea level; it is currently around 1,090 feet, 83 feet below average, evidenced by the white “bathtub ring”.

The Hover Dam Powerhouse as seen from the top of the Hoover Dam.  The new 1,900-foot-long Mike O’Callaghan – Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge (aka the Hoover Dam Bypass) is in the background.

The Hover Dam Powerhouse and face of the Hoover Dam as seen from the top of the Hoover Dam.

Standing in Nevada, looking towards Arizona across the downstream face of the Hoover Dam.

The new 1,900-foot-long Mike O’Callaghan – Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge (aka the Hoover Dam Bypass), viewed from the Hoover Dam.  The roadway soars 900 feet above the Colorado River.  Its concrete arch is the longest in the Western Hemisphere.

What not to do when walking across the Mike O’Callaghan – Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge.

Thank you for stopping by!

Like what you see?  Please leave a comment below.

-Dan, a.k.a. PHX Photo

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoover_Dam

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Mead

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_O‘Callaghan_–_Pat_Tillman_Memorial_Bridge