Grand Coulee Dam and Dry Falls Heritage Area vie with each other as the highlight of our itinerary—both are amazing sites to visit!
Grand Coulee Dam will be the favorite of many visitors and is where the itinerary begins. The dam is a concrete gravity dam (meaning that only the weight of the concrete structure sitting on a rocky foundation opposes the horizontal pressure of water pushing against it), constructed between 1933 and 1942. Construction employed roughly 8,000 workers during the high unemployment years of the Great Depression. Conditions were often dangerous and 77 workers died during construction.
The primary purpose of the dam was irrigation, followed by power generation, but the sudden increase in vital power needs due to wartime efforts delayed irrigation; power from the dam powered wartime industries across the state of Washington: aluminum smelters in Longview and Vancouver, the Boeing factories, and even plutonium production in Richland as part of the ultra-secret Manhattan Project.
Best time to visit: Memorial Day weekend through October will allow access to most of the itinerary sites, but if you want to include the Colville Tribal Museum your visit will need to be June through September with your first day being Wednesday through Saturday.
Grand Coulee Dam Visitor Center
The visitor center is a great place to start your itinerary as you can learn much about the region and the dam’s history before you visit the dam itself. The exhibits are of exceptional quality, making for a wonderful visit. Plan on one hour for your visit.
Note that the Grand Coulee Bridge is but a short walk down Columbia Avenue; the pedestrian paths along both sides of the bridge are lined with interpretive panels that inform about both the geologic history of the region and of course the history of the dam’s construction.
Here are details you will need, including the address to enter into your navigation app:
Grand Coulee Dam Visitor Center, WA-155, Coulee Dam, WA 99116, 509-633-9265. Open: daily 8:30-5; closed Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day. Admission: Free but donations welcome. Gift shop on site. Plentiful free parking.
Grand Coulee Dam Tour
Grand Coulee Dam, at nearly 12 million cubic yards of concrete, is one of the largest concrete structures in the world. The dam is the largest hydropower generating plant in the United States. The Pump-Generating Plant’s 12 huge pumps can transfer water to Banks Lake at a rate of 1605 cubic feet of water per second! Water from Banks Lake provides irrigation water to the Columbia Basin Project, which currently irrigates 670,000 acres of farm land but has a capacity to irrigate 1.1 million acres.
Tours of the John W. Keys III Pump-Generating Plant are available daily. Note that there is currently no allowance on the tour vans for mobility devices, though this issue is being addressed. However, service animals are allowed on the tour. Plan on one hour for the tour.
Security measures: all participants will be required to pass through a metal detector, which involves placing all items on your person, including belts, into a container to reclaim after passing through the metal detector. Here is a list of things that are not allowed on the tour: weapons of any kind (including pocket knives of any length), purses/bags/packages, backpacks/fanny packs, camera cases (cameras are welcome, but no case). No onsite storage is available.
Here are details you will need, including the address to enter into your navigation app:
Grand Coulee Dam Tour: 110 Roosevelt Way, Coulee Dam, WA 99116. Open: Memorial Day weekend through October (though tours may be cancelled without notice). Tour start times are 9, 11, 1:30, and 3:30; you will want to arrive at least 30 minutes early as tours fill up fast on the weekends. Admission: Free.
Just in case, here are driving directions from the visitor center, as provided by the Department of Reclamation:
1. From WA Highway 155 (Columbia Avenue) head northwest toward WA Highway 155.
2. Turn right onto Grand Coulee Bridge and continue straight onto Roosevelt Way.
3. At the stop sign, turn left on Bureau Road and follow the road to Marina Way.
4. The tour center is approximately one-half mile down on Marina Way.
Colville Tribal Museum
The museum is just down the hill from the dam tour parking lot and is a convenient visit either before or after your dam tour. The museum displays artifacts, photographs, paintings, and other diverse items of native art and culture of the twelve tribes of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation and informs the visitor how life was forever changed for the native population by the building of the dam. As is often the case, the building appears small from the outside but if you are a reader you could easily be here for an hour.
Here are details you will need, including the address to enter into your navigation app:
Colville Tribal Museum, 512 Mead Way, Coulee Dam, WA 99116, 509-633-0751. Open: Wed-Sat 9-4:30 Jun-Sep; closed all state and federal holidays. Admission: Free but with a suggested donation. Gift shop on site. It may be a good idea to call to confirm any particular open dates, as open dates tend not to be firm or perhaps change frequently.
Steamboat Rock State Park Crown Point
A 10-minute drive from the Colville Museum will bring you to this site above the dam. The vista point was constructed in the early 50s and is showing the wear and the interpretive panels are way out of date and need to be updated. Yet, a visit here is still almost a must as it offers great viewing of the dam and the surrounding region.
Here are details you will need, including the address to enter into your navigation app:
Steamboat Rock State Park Crown Point, 51052 WA-155, Electric City, WA 99123. Open until after the laser light show concludes.
Coulee Dam Laser Light Show
The “One River, Many Voices” laser light show, the largest display of its kind in the U.S., begins Memorial Day weekend and runs through September. The light show, projected on the face of the dam itself, is free and there is plenty of free parking below the visitor center. The 37-minute show runs nightly and begins at dark, usually around 10:00 pm through July, then roughly 9:30 in August and 8:30 in September. The show includes fireworks on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend and on July 4. Restroom facilities on site. The show is subject to cancellation without notice.
Dinner, Accommodations, and Breakfast
There are a few accommodation sites, but we recommend Columbia River Inn. The site is very reasonably priced and has the added bonus of being but a short walking distance to the park where you can view the laser light show that evening, but note that they do not offer breakfast. Columbia River Inn: 10 Lincoln Ave, Coulee Dam, WA 99116, 509-633-2100.
You will find several restaurants in town, but here are our recommended locations: MPH’s Hi Dam Bar and Grill is open for lunch and dinner: 207 Main St, Grand Coulee, WA 99133. PKs Culinary is open for all three of the day’s meals: 415 Midway Ave, Grand Coulee, WA 99133. At some point in your visit, stop by Coulee Creamery for old-fashioned ice cream: 403 Midway Ave, Grand Coulee, WA 99133.
Dry Falls State Park and Visitor Center
Day 2 begins with a 40-minute drive south on SR-155 along the Coulee Scenic Corridor. SR-155 junctions with US Rte-2; after about three miles turn left onto SR-17. After roughly two miles turn left into the visitor center parking.
The Dry Falls happen to be one of the great scenic wonders of our nation and was once the largest waterfall known to have existed on Earth. This 3.5-mile-wide cataract drops 400 feet, carved by massive Ice Age flood waters that repeatedly swept through the Grand Coulee. See this wondrous panoramic view from the Vista House Overlook.
Next, find great exhibits inside the visitor center which further inform the visitor about the Ice Age floods story and also about the early human history of the region. Plan 45 minutes to one hour for your visit, 15 more minutes if you watch the video (and you should!). A concessions stand offers limited food selections and ice cream.
Here are details you will need, including the address to enter into your navigation app:
Dry Falls State Park Visitor Center: 34875 Park Lake Rd NE, Coulee City, WA 99115, 509-632-5214. Open: Thu-Mon 10-4. Admission: Free, donations welcome, but note that a Washington State Discover Pass is required to park. Gift shop on site.
Lake Lenore Caves
Roughly nine miles further south on SR-17 will bring you to the turn off to the left onto Lake Lenore Caves Rd. The caves were formed by glacial flooding from the last ice age and were occupied by indigenous peoples as long as 5000 years ago.
The trail is just over a mile, and ranges from easy to moderate difficulty, but definitely has some rocky spots with rough footing—yet is still a great hiking trail. Don’t be disappointed by the caves, which are little more than washed out depressions in the basalt rock of the cliff face as the hike and the view are worth the effort. Bring water and a hat in summer and watch and listen for rattlesnakes.
The site is well marked as requiring a Washington State Discover Pass but no pay site is available, so you must acquire your pass in advance before a visit here. Vault toilet on site.
Coulee Corridor Route to Soap Lake and Home
Continue south on SR-17 for about 18 miles to Soap Lake; the Coulee Corridor doesn’t technically end there but the scenic nature pretty much does. From there several routes head south, east, and west to head homeward bound.
Thank you for reading our itinerary! We hope you are inspired to check out this historic central Washington region and its sites.
Hit the Road in the Pacific Northwest 