Traffic backed up at entrances to Lake Mead, officials warn

Crowds at Lake Mead have grown as the holiday weekend arrives, with all entrances backed up Friday morning.

The lake’s Boulder City entrance was backed up to U.S. Highway 93 as of about noon, National Parks Service spokeswoman Christie Vanover said. She added that if beaches reach their capacity, access will be restricted until some leave the area.

Rangers are enforcing social distancing guidelines, including asking those with tents to set up 10 feet apart from one another, Vanover said.

⚠️⚠️ July 3, 10:40 a.m.: All entrance stations are seeing an increase in visitation and are currently backed up, please plan accordingly. Visitors may experience delays.

Please have your passes waiting prior to entering the stations, this will help speed up the wait.

— Lake Mead (@lakemeadnps) July 3, 2020

Officials had advised of increased visitation in a tweet about 10:40 a.m. and warned people might experience delays entering the area. Visitors are asked to have their passes ready prior to arriving at the stations to speed up entry, the tweet said.

Independence Day

Similar, if not larger, turnout is expected for the Fourth of July on Saturday, and Vanover noted that the lake usually sees 50,000-200,000 visitors on the holiday.

“It’s going to be busy out here,” Vanover said. “We ask that people who come out here recreate responsibly and pick up their trash in addition to social distancing.”

Contact Amanda Bradford at abradford@reviewjournal.com. Follow @amandabrad_uc on Twitter.