Lake Mead braces for busiest weekend of the year

By Kyle B. Hansen

Friday, May 28, 2010 | 2:05 a.m.

Unlike the glitzy tourist attractions on the Strip, the Lake Mead National Recreation Area has seen an increase in visitors in the last year, and officials are gearing up for the busiest weekend of the year.

The recreation area averages about 8 million visitors a year, National Park Service spokeswoman Roxanne Dey said. In the past year, that number has risen about 7 percent.

The increase is likely because more local residents are taking advantage of the area, Dey said.

“Some locals are rediscovering Lake Mead,” she said. “Maybe they can’t afford to go to California, but they can come here.”

Memorial Day weekend is usually the busiest of the year at Lake Mead, with about 200,000 visitors, Dey said.

“People are staying closer and taking advantage of the recreation in their own backyard,” said Edwin Lyngar, the Nevada Department of Wildlife’s boat education coordinator. “We want them out here, but we want them to be safe.”

The Nevada and Arizona wildlife departments and rangers from the National Park Service will be patrolling Lake Mead this weekend looking for people without proper safety equipment or who are drinking and driving boats.

“You can not drink and drive a boat safely,” Dey said.

Lyngar said every boat is required to carry a life jacket for each passenger on board, and children under the age of 13 are required to wear the life jacket when the boat is moving.

Today’s life jackets aren’t the same as the ones of 20 years ago, he said. Improvements have led to slim life jackets that automatically inflate when they hit the water.

“There’s no longer a reason to go without one,” Lyngar said. “They’re no longer orange, bulky and dorky.”

Game warden Lt. Mike Maynard said boat drivers need to be extra careful on Lake Mead, where the falling water level has created obstacles that could severely damage a boat.

“Lake Mead can be hazardous if you’re navigating it for the first time, especially if it’s in low-light conditions,” he said after pointing out a pipe sticking out of the water.

Because the lake’s water level fluctuates, even if someone has driven on the lake before, the obstacles change, Maynard said.

While a large number of accidents on the lake are the result of drunken driving, shifting weather also leads to a large number of stranded boaters and sinking vessels, officials said.

National Weather Service meteorologist Faith Borden said weather on the lake can change quickly and if there are high winds or an approaching thunderstorm, boaters should find safety in a cove rather than trying to make it back to the marina.

The safest time to be on the water is in the morning, Borden said. Most of the high winds come in the afternoons, and thunderstorms rarely form in the morning, she said.

Lake Mead’s 500 miles of shoreline can also be dangerous, Dey said.

“One of the safety messages we can’t stress enough is to leave the backyard pool toys at home,” she said.

Floating toys are great in pools but don’t work well on the lake, she said. Winds and waves can pick up the lightweight toys and pull children away from the shore.