Side Trips to interesting places you can visit for a day
Here’s our 2023-24 Visitors’ Guide, the print version in online form. Use this to keep it “in your pocket” for quick reference
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Pick up the actual print version just about anywhere in town, at the Visitor Center at Grand Coulee Dam or at several visitor centers around the state.
The first Friday of each month means shopping and entertainment from June through October in a new kind of event for the area.
On July 1, North Dam Park in Grand Coulee will host a 5-9 p.m. event that includes beer, hotdogs, live music, and vendors.
Beer will be provided from Republic Brewing; hotdogs from Porky’s Hot Dogs, and acoustic musician Rylei Franks will provide tunes and ambiance to the event.
The First Friday Market events are being hosted on the first Friday of each month until October, including June 3, July 1, Aug. 5, Sept. 2, and Oct 7.
The first Friday of each month means shopping and entertainment from June through October in a new kind of event for the area.
This Friday, June 3, is the first of its kind, and future “First Fridays” will be held on July 1, Aug. 5, Sept 2, and Oct. 7.
The Festival America takes place on Independence Day, the 4th of July, at the park below the visitor center for the Grand Coulee Dam.
With the dam, a testament to what Americans can accomplish working together, as a backdrop, those attending the festival can enjoy shopping, music, food, a laser light show, and fireworks to celebrate the founding of the United States of America.
There will be 25 vendors at the festival selling food, crafts, fun and more from 10 a.m. until 9 p.m.
Live music includes funk and rock musician Jerry Lee Raines who takes the stage at 2 p.m.; the Hometown Hooligans who play classic rock covers starting at 5 p.m.; and Jesse Quandt, who plays country rock, starting at 7:30 p.m.
The laser light show titled “One River, Many Voices,” starts at 10 p.m., with lasers projected onto the face of the dam itself telling a story, followed by a fireworks show that will launch over 5,000 shots off of the dam and lighting the face of it.
It’s a little easier in the Coulee now to get a Discover Pass to park at Washington State Parks.
An automated pay station located at Northrup Point along SR-155, in the same area as Northrup Canyon and Steamboat Rock, accepts credit and debit cards to buy annual Discover Passes, day-use Discover Passes, as well as boat launch permits and more.
The pay station is located in the parking lot at Northrup Point near the boat launch there.
An annual Discover Pass cost $30 for the year; a day-use Discover Pass cost $10. A boat launch permit costs $7, and an unattended overnight vehicle parking fee is $10.
Denis Felton is the area manager for area state parks, including Steamboat Rock, Sunlakes, Dry Falls, and Potholes.
Felton said one of the main purposes for installing the pay station at Northrup Point is to simplify their work and reduce the use of cash in envelopes, used for boat launch and overnight parking fees, to appease the state auditor.
“The state auditor hates it when people collect lots of cash,” Felton said. “It’s an audit nightmare.”
Felton said the automated pay station, installed around late April 2019, has reduced the amount of self-pay envelopes by about half, although they’d like to reduce the envelopes by as much as possible.
Felton said that another automated pay station at Steamboat Rock State Park sometime “down the road” is possible, “but it’s not a priority right now.”
Discover Passes are available at the arrival booth at Steamboat Rock State Park when the booth is open.
A paystation has been where Felton’s office is located, at Sunlakes State Park, for four or five years now, he said.
An option to buy an annual Discover Pass is also included when renewing vehicle license tabs through the Washington State Department of Transportation, and they are also available at Coulee Playland.
The state Legislature passed the law to create the Discover Pass in 2011, in part for “recovering the cost incurred by the state for operations and management of recreation opportunities.”
There are 74 automated Discover Pass pay stations statewide. At the most recent purchase cost of $7,000 each, that’s the equivalent of 17,266 annual Discover Passes.
