Best Lake Mead Day Trips & Things to Do

The beautiful Nevada recreational lake produced by the construction of the mighty Hoover Dam from 1931-36 on the Colorado River is the biggest reservoir in the United States. Lake Mead was named after Elwood Mead, who headed the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation at the time that the dam was built. The United States' first ever recreation area was established in 1964 around the 1.5 million-acre lake with 550 miles of shoreline and 28 million acre-feet of water when it's filled to capacity. Nearby Lake Mohave also is part of the Lake Mead National Recreation Area.