This drive across America in 5 minutes is kinda cool, especially because it features our area (2:20 minutes in).
Thanks to Brian Gawley for calling it to our attention.
Category Archives: Places to See
Places you want to go
Catch the spectacular spill before it stops
As I write this, the Columbia River is flowing through Grand Coulee Dam at a rate of 195,400 cubic feet per second. And, spectacularly, about 25,000 cubic feet you can see spilling some 300 feet down the face of the dam.
At Niagara Falls you would see about 20,000 cubic feet of water falling about 70 feet.
The spill should keep going all week, adding incentive to anyone thinking about visiting the dam for the annual July 4th celebration.
If you’d like to check the current amount of water flowing in the river, over the dam or the level of Lake Roosevelt compared to sea level, you can do that here. (But the data fields might not line up well on a small screen of a cell phone.
Lake Roosevelt, behind the dam, is already basically full, well ahead of last year as the chart below shows.
Festival of America set for July 4-6
Celebration planned for 4th of July
Everyone likes a good, old-fashioned Fourth of July celebration.
You can enjoy one this week, the “Festival of America” a three-day affair, right here in the Grand Coulee Dam area.
The celebration kicks off on Thursday, July 4, with music in the park below the Visitor Center.
There’s lots to do. A number of craft booths will offer goods and several food booths will fix a summer-time lunch or dinner for you.
The music will take you right up to the Laser Light Show time. And to cap it all off, about 10:30 p.m., there will be the giant fireworks display right off the top of Grand Coulee Dam on July 4.
Music in the park continues Friday and Saturday, as do the craft and food booths, with tours of the dam and Laser Light Show adding to the celebration.
The chamber of commerce has added a number of family-friendly games, good for all ages, at this year’s celebration.
Plus, this year the community will see the debut of the sport of roller derby in this area. Teams from around the state will come for a demonstration skrimmage July 5 at North Dam Park in Grand Coulee.
The Festival of America is sponsored by the Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce in partnership with the Coulee Dam Casino, with music arranged for by the town of Coulee Dam.
All the particulars are in a special “Festival of America” celebration section below.
Water over the dam
If you’re lucky, usually in the spring, you might get to see the rare and amazing site of water falling down Grand Coulee Dam’s huge spillway about 300 feet to the river below.
Some years this doesn’t happen at all, which is the way most who “operate” the Columbia River prefer it.
Today, the rest of us get our wish. They’ve been “spilling” for the last two days, the result of too much runoff from the snow-packed mountains upstream, which is carefully and continuously measured to avoid flooding downstream.
The Bureau appears to be holding the level of Lake Roosevelt behind the dam at about 1267. Full is 1290 (feet above sea level, that is).
In the photo, less than 10 percent of the River’s flow is coming over the top. The rest of the 173,000 cubic feet per second is flowing through the dam, some of it making electricity.
You can check for yourself how much is currently spilling or flowing through and what the levels of the water are with is link.
Last Thursday, the official forecast was that the lake would come up over the next week to the mid 1270s. Here’s a graph of this years lake levels compared to last year’s.
A promise of beauty
I love this area in the spring, it can be so profoundly beautiful. Just caught sight of this on my way home tonight and had to share. The quiet after the storm, after Colorama.