Analyzing Big Water

IF YOU LAUNCH at Callville Bay Marina on the lower end of Lake Mead, zigzag around the rocks to go through the Narrows, then cross the huge, open water of the Virgin Basin, you’ll eventually see what’s known as the Overton Arm coming in on the north shore. Created by the merging Muddy and Virgin rivers, this is Mead’s only tributary, and you can go up the Overton 20 miles before you actually see the two rivers.

You can skip the trip up the Overton and instead wind slightly south and around into Gregg Basin, head back north into Grand Wash, then drop back to the southeast until you run into the Grand Canyon, which you really don’t want to do. On the other hand, if you head out of Callville Bay and turn west to cross Boulder Basin, you can aim for the Las Vegas Wash and finally, the Hoover Dam.

Anyone who has been on Lake Mead usually remembers one characteristic: It’s huge, seemingly much larger than its 163,000 acres because it stretches out so far from one end to the other.

Toledo Bend, one of America’s best and best-known