Recently, I traveled with my son to Nevada, California, and Arizona, taking advantage of some of the cheap one way car rentals into Arizona. We flew in Sunday night to Las Vegas, and early Monday morning, we stopped by to visit Hoover Dam, located on the Colorado River and the border between Nevada and Arizona.
What to do when you visit Hoover Dam
Those of you who know me will know that I’m not big on paying for things in general, and when I decided I wanted to visit Hoover Dam, that was no exception. Looking through the official US Government site, there are a few things that you can pay for (which you can choose to do if you want)
Costs at Hoover Dam
- 30 minute Powerplant Tour – $15 for adults, $12 for seniors and $12 for kids 4-16
- 1 hour Hoover Dam Tour – $30 for everyone; kids 8 and under not allowed
- Visitor Center admission – $10 for everyone 4 and up
- Parking – $10 in the parking garage
Note too that similar to Mt. Rushmore, the Every Kid in a Park pass will NOT work here, as admission to the actual site (the dam) is free, and that’s the only thing that the Every Kid in a Park pass is good for – it doesn’t work on parking fees, tours and visitor center admission.
(SEE ALSO: Every National Park free? Not THIS one 🙁)
Visit Hoover Dam for free
Personally, when I decided to visit Hoover Dam, I was most just looking to drive on it, take some pictures and see the views. I’m not sure there’s a ton of value in some of that stuff that you can’t get from reading online if you wanted to. Here are my top 3 tricks to visit Hoover Dam for free
Trick 1: Pick your time to visit Hoover Dam carefully
This is something that may or may not be under your control, but just know that if you arrive during the middle of the day, during summer vacation, it is going to be super crowded. We visited at about 7 a.m. / 8 a.m. (since Nevada and Arizona are in different time zones, technically the time changes when you cross over the dam!)
Trick 2: Know that there are other options for parking
There is not access from US 93 on the Arizona side – no matter which direction you’re coming from, you need to get off on Exit 2, Nevada state route 172 and wind your way down to the dam. Here’s an annotated map I made
This shows a few things that I found helpful. First, know that regardless of if you’re coming from Las Vegas or from Arizona, you must exit off of US 93 on the Nevada side. There is no access to anything you’re able to see from the Arizona side – that has been closed down.
So as you’re coming along on Hoover Dam Road, after you go through a security check, the first thing you’ll see is the parking lot that takes you to the walkway up to the bypass bridge (more on that later). As you wind your way down, the first big parking option is the parking garage, which costs $10
But if you continue on over the dam, there are a few places that you can (as far as I could tell) park for free. I’m sure these fill up QUITE fast during popular times, but when we were there (early on a Monday morning in November), there was nobody there – here’s us at Parking Area 10
Also know that you CAN drive across the dam for free, but you can’t stop on the dam, and you’ll probably get in trouble if you try to pull over anywhere except the designated parking areas. So if you just want to drive across the dam, you can do that, but then since there is no access to US 93 on the Arizona side, you’ll need to turn around and come back over the dam to the Nevada side.
Trick 3: Consider walking across the new Mike O’Callaghan–Pat Tillman bypass bridge (just not on Monday mornings!)
As I mentioned before, one of the first parking areas is where you can park and walk up to the bypass bridge. Our plan was to drive across the dam and back, park here, and then get some good views from the bypass bridge.
This parking area is only open from dawn to dusk. We got there a little before official sunrise, and as you can see, the area was closed.
While we were waiting for it to open, we could see a guy up on the walkway (you can see the walkway up to the bypass bridge snaking back and forth in the background). He appeared to be using a leaf blower to clean off the walkway.
After 20 minutes or so of waiting, a police car came up and let us know that Monday mornings they clean this area, so it wouldn’t be open for another few hours.
So pro-tip, if you’re planning to visit Hoover Dam, don’t come early on Monday morning!
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Readers – any tips for visiting the Hoover Dam for free? Or is the visitor center or tours worth it? Leave your thoughts in the comments below
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
Thank you for doing this. It helped so much for our first time.
Great! I’m glad it was able to help!
Awesome! Planning a trip there in a week. Great help. Thx!
Hi dan,
Isnt it basically just one trick and its only how to save on parking? I couldn’t find any info how to get a free tour or visitor center entrance. Basically, you write only about getting free stuff free 😉
The Pat Tilman walking bridge is a must see! It’s a terrific new bridge. As someone with a great fear of heights, I found it a challenge, but wouldn’t have missed it!
HELP ! I am having serial senior momens !
Where is the info on visiting Hoover Dam FREE ?
Or are just trying to do a bait & switch so we open the article ?
I can see charging for tours but charging to get into the Visitor’s Center seems a bit over the line to me. Charging for parking reminds me of Mount Rushmore where the fee is good for a year, as if anyone but a few locals are ever going to be back in a year to park there again. I see where the Power Plant Tour does include admission to the Visitor’s Center.
How far a walk is it from the parking lot to the Mike O’Callaghan–Pat Tillman bypass bridge? Are there stairs to be climbed? I’ll be visiting with my 78 yo Dad next month as we drive from Vegas to Phoenix. He isn’t interested in doing any tours but would like to see the dam from a good vantage point. This sounds like a good option as long as it isn’t too taxing to get from the lot to the bridge.
Rick – you can somewhat see the path from the parking lot to the bridge in one of the pictures. We didn’t get to do that because the lot was closed for cleaning when we were there (as described in the post). I don’t think it would be that long of a walk but I’m not 78 🙂
Its a lot of stairs Rick. There is a switchback WC ramp though. Inside the visitor center there a look out too. Its not as good as the bridge but it has an elevator!
Too bad you missed a great tour! Hoover Dam tours are the best value you will find in and around Las Vegas. Its a Federal facility but it finds itself. So money for tours helps things run at the dam.
Tour money help things at the dam dun? Federal facility? Seriously?
What about my taxes they rip every single paycheck, huh?
Charging to visit federal facility is like charging to visit the Library of Congress (which is free to visit, btw).
Very useful.
“Since Nevada and Arizona are in different time zones, technically the time changes when you cross over the dam!” That’s true during Standard Time – Arizona is one hour ahead of Nevada. However in the summer when there is Daylight Savings Time, Arizona does not change and remains on Standard Time, so that then the two states are on the same time.