One of the world’s weirdest cruises is in the heart of a desert

Along the dusty gravel approach road, the horizon wobbles. The relentless desert heat has roasted reality into a flitting, shimmering semi-blur. Several weeks of 40 degree-plus temperatures have cooked the landscape so thoroughly, it appears heat is rising vapour-like from the ground.

The Hoover Dam from above.Credit: iStock

Amid the woozy haze, however, is an incongruous streak of blue. Lake Mead is the most mirage-like thing I’ve ever seen that turns out to be real.

The lake, created by damming the Colorado River, is the largest man-made lake in the US. It covers 640 square kilometres when full, stretching its spindly arms 180 kilometres across the Mojave Desert.

It is also the scene for one of the strangest cruises on earth.

The Desert Princess is a three-tiered paddlewheeler, which would probably look more at home chugging down the Mississippi River. It finds itself in the sunburnt, parched south-west, however, taking visitors on a cruise through the desert.

The Desert Princess near the dam wall.Credit: Aramark Destinations

After the mooring ropes are cast aside, the Desert Princess begins its slow drift through America’s first National Recreation Area. There’s little evidence of it on a fiery summer day, but people escape here from Las Vegas to fish, swim, boat or kayak.

Heading towards Fortification Hill, a dark volcanic plateau rising more than 1000 metres above the water line, the lonely paddlewheeler has only a few hardy ducks for company. But there is more wildlife in this swath of eerie starkness than meets the eye. Desert tortoises burrow in the ground to escape the midday heat. Jackrabbits stay cool by circulating blood through their massive ears. Coyotes and bighorn rams occasionally make appearances on the steep hillsides.

Those hillsides are quite extraordinary, though. The lines of time strike clearly through them, eras piling high in distinct, multicoloured strata. Grey tiers represent the fossil-laden limestone of an ancient sea, the red strips are iron-heavy sandstone and the blacker chunks are magnesium-rich lava.

The levels are all the more clear for the lack of vegetation. The main exception comes from a sprinkling of creosote bushes, their tiny leaves coated with resin to retain water, and their seeds resting in the soil until the next brief rainy season.

The Desert Princess exploring Lake Mead. The lake is the reservoir formed by the Hoover Dam.Credit: Aramark Destinations

After a lengthy burst of nature and history-based commentary, the Desert Princess begins to turn from the open lake into the higher-walled Black Canyon.

This is where two enormous fault lines meet, sending the Colorado River sharply turning to the south. And it doesn’t take too long for the monster that gave birth to Lake Mead to come into view.

Hoover Dam rises high above the water line, a gargantuan concrete barricade holding back the waters.

Completed in 1936, Hoover Dam was the biggest dam in the world at the time. The mighty barrier caused the Colorado River to flood across the desert, sending valleys deep underwater and condemning small settlements to a watery grave. As the Desert Princess returns, it points in the direction of St Thomas, a tiny town where the rooftops occasionally emerge from the lake when drought conditions send the water levels uncomfortably low.

Today, St Thomas remains safely sunk. But knowing its ghosts lurk beneath add to the sheer strangeness of the cruise.

It turns out there’s something weirder than a cruise through the desert, though, and that’s going to the beach in the desert. After the paddlewheeler returns to its jetty, I drive to Boulder Beach. It’s a rocky, somewhat desolate affair. From the water’s edge, I run in, expecting refreshment on one of the hottest days I’ve ever known. The lake, that mighty mirage engineered into existence by one of the modern wonders of the world, feels like a misjudged bath – so warm that I need to get out and add a blast from the cold tap.

The details

Visit
Lake Mead Cruises runs 90-minute cruises towards Hoover Dam, with tickets costing $US42 ($68). You’ll also need to pay a $US25 vehicle entry fee for the Lake Mead National Recreation Area. The departure point is a 35-minute drive from Las Vegas. See lakemeadcruises.com

Fly
United offers one-stop flights from Melbourne and Sydney to Las Vegas, changing planes in Los Angeles. See united.com

Stay
The Downtown Grand in Las Vegas offers a slightly more comfortable swim in its rooftop pool. King rooms cost from $US111 ($178) a night, room only. See downtowngrand.com

The writer was a guest of Travel Nevada. See travelnevada.com