![]() When Lake Mead filled, it covered a significant salt mine in the valley of the Virgin River that had been utilized for centuries by Native Americans in the Grand Canyon region. With the creation of Lake Mead, plants were washed away, animals lost their habitat, and people were driven from their homes. Though Lake Mead NRA provides water and recreational resources for millions of people, this enjoyment came at the expense of many important cultural and natural resources. Most of the land elsewhere in the NRA is a typical desert landscape of dry washes and low barren hills. Because it was artificially formed in a desert and canyon landscape, the sapphire blue waters of the lake tend to lap up against steep red and white cliffs, making most of the lake area accessible only by boat. Most of the water activities take place along 20 miles of the southwestern shore, the strip most accessible from Las Vegas. Its lakes provide opportunities for boating, swimming, and fishing, while wilderness areas appeal to hikers, photographers, and sightseers just passing through. Lake Mead NRA offers many year-round activities for visitors. The experiment was successful, and in 1961 Grand Canyon National Park became the first park to open this type of facility. The NPS in the 1950s was looking for a way to serve the growing number of tourists coming to visit sites within the national park system, and kept an eye on this site to see whether a similar system could be implemented in other parks. For instance, in 1953 Lake Mead NRA was the site of the first concessionaire-operated trailer park within the National Park System. The history of Lake Mead NRA intersects with that of Grand Canyon National Park just as its ecosystem does. Though the cacti and creosote that dot the landscape may make it seem barren, in the springtime it comes alive as rain showers spur the growth of colorful wildflowers. These include bighorn sheep, kit fox, ringtail cats, desert tortoise, chuckwalla lizards, Gila monsters, and several kinds of rattlesnakes. Even though the land is arid and hot, it is home to a surprising array of birds, mammals, fish, and reptiles.
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