This is the Hoover Dam itself. You can just barely see the blue of the water on the far side of it, dark blue and oddly cold looking in the red desert. We could tell immediately a difference in the landscape here at the Arizona border. All through the Mojave, the desert ground had been yellow-brown sand and low, green brush. But just as we entered into these mountains, the soil became drenched in rust. Even the cement changed, as you can see from the parking lot I'm in.... The reason I like this picture so much is because Jesse left me a voice message today, knowing that I was leaving Vegas. He quoted Hunter S. Thompson: "So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look west, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high water mark -- that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back." And you can see it here in the picture; where the water has bleached the sides of the mountains that have beaten it back.