Dry Falls and the Grand Coulee Dam

Friday, June 20, 2014

After a uneasy night in the Coulee City Park campground, with the locals quickly driving through our campsite, a few feet from the RV, on their way to build a bonfire at 1 am, seriously, we were the only campers there, we took showers and left in the morning. It's the only time that we've had issues while legally camped in a paid campground. We feel safer boondocking. We took our detour to the Dry Falls. I'll let Greg tell you about this amazing place!


Greg's Commentary – Dry Falls is the cascade and channel remaining from the repeated and rapid draining of glacial Lake Missoula between 12,000 and 15,000 years ago. This lake, formed by glacial damming of the Clarks Fork River, is estimated to have been about half the volume of Lake Michigan. When the ice dam failed repeatedly as it was weakened and undermined by underflow and buoyancy from the 2,000-foot deep lake, the lake would drain in one or two days. The existing Columbia River channel could not handle this enormous flow, estimated to be more than ten times the combined flow of all fresh water rivers today, so most of the water flowed down the Grand Coulee. It is hard to visualize the magnitude of the water fall at Dry Falls, even standing on the edge looking down. Dry Falls is 3½ miles wide and 400 feet high – 5 times as wide and twice as high as Niagara Falls. Geologists estimate that the flood flowing at 65 MPH over the cataract was 600 feet deep, compared with 15 feet at Niagara, so the falls would only have looked like a modest depression in the water surface during peak flow.

Dry Falls - The ponds in the mid-view are remnants of the plunge pools

Looking at the east side of Dry Falls, beyond Umatilla Rock on the right

Looking down the lower Grand Coulee below Dry Falls

The flood water flowing off of the basalt surface of Waterville Mesa cascaded down the Lower Grand Coulee to the lower Channeled Scablands where the water could spread out and slow down. The 30 to 90 floods caused the water fall where the Lower Grand Coulee exited the mesa edge to retreat 23 miles to Dry Falls where they happened to be after the last flood.


We stood at the rim and looked across and down the sides and tried to visualize the huge volume of water that would have been churning past. We couldn't have stood where we were, as the noise, and spray would have been tremendous!. Looking at the arid surroundings made it even more difficult to think of water in such a parched place. The small lakes at the bottom provide a respite for migrating birds, but are a mere whisper of the past cataclysmic torrent. Why had we never heard of such a huge impressive feature? Being Eastcoasters is one excuse, but even Greg the geologist was unaware of Dry Falls.


After viewing the “Falls”, we had a decision to make. Having an oil change appointment back over the Cascades in Bellingham on Tuesday, we needed to prioritize our time. We were both interested in driving and hiking down on the valley floor below the Falls, but also wanted to see the Grand Coulee Dam, so we drove on. Hopefully we'll be back in the future to check it out more closely.


Driving north on the east shore of Bank's Lake, we were amazed to be below the ancient, high, basaltic cliffs of the Grand Coulee. They were echoed on the other side across the broad expanse of water. We were to learn later that this huge lake holds water pumped from the Grand Coulee Dam, and is used primarily for irrigation, and of course, recreation. This part of the Grand Coulee was originally a channel for the Columbia River, but it no longer flows through here. The dam at the southern end of the lake where we camped, controls this massive amount of water.

Heading up Banks Lake toward Grand Coulee

Basalt cliffs 900 feet high cut by the flood waters above Dry Falls

Lake Roosevelt

Entering the town of Grand Coulee, the road drops down to a parking lot that reveals the front of this massive dam. At night a laser show plays across the front of the spillway, and the best viewing is from this parking lot. We did a brief tour of the visitor center and found out that a bus tour would be leaving soon from the other side of the river. Crossing the bridge, with the dam a huge looming presence up the river, we arrived in time to go through the security check and on to the bus. All we could carry with us for the 50 minute tour were whatever legal things we had in our pockets, basically, keys, wallets, and a camera without the case. We had to go through the metal detector and empty our pocket items into a tray. We were also instructed not to take photos of security personnel or their booths.

Grand Coulee Dam with very unusual flow, 14-inches, over the entire 1100-foot spillway

Our group was made up of several British couples, a Swedish family, and a man from Austria! There were a few others from the states. Our tour guide said we were the first people from Maryland she had on her tours in the two years she had been working there. The bus took us back over the bridge and to one of the pumping stations. We took an elevator down to view the pumps.

Pumps to raise water into Banks Lake. Each pump will move more than one Billion gallons per day!

The Grand Coulee Dam was a “make work” project started by President Roosevelt during the Great Depression. Towns were created on both sides of the river, and the largest concrete structure in the world was created to hold back the Columbia River. (The Three Gorges Dam in China is now the largest.) Built two years after the Hoover Dam was started, only 71 men died building this one, since greater safety measures were used. OSHA didn't exist then, and men were happy to have jobs. It was worth the risks.

Beauty queens dumping water from all 48 states into the dam at the opening ceremony

Enormous concrete core sample

The dam was created primarily to irrigate the arid, volcanic rich soil of the eastern half of Washington state. Power generation was a secondary goal, but as war loomed during dam design, the dam was raised and more generators were added to supply more power for aluminum smelting early in WWII. Huge Lake Roosevelt backs up behind it all the way to the Canadian border. It was designed to stop short of the border, and provides a beautiful recreation area.

Looking from the top of the dam up Lake Roosevelt

After touring the pumping facility, our bus drove on to the top of the dam, the only way to cross it after 9/11. We got out and leaned over the edge to watch the huge volume of water flow over the top. As soon as we left, the spillway gates were closed off, and we found out that we were very fortunate to see that much spill over the dam. Truly an unusual sight.

Looking up at the dam from the downstream construction bridge

Looking down over the spillway

Looking west at the new powerhouse, completed in 1972.

We drove the shore of Lake Roosevelt and found a spot at a campground, Spring Canyon, a few miles from Grand Coulee. Up above the lake the breeze was brisk. The laser show at the dam wasn't until 10 pm, well beyond Greg's “expiration date”, so we decided not to drive back into town. The next day's drive would take us back to the Northern Cascades, over to the coast, and out of the hot, sunny weather.

Looking down stream from the dam