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.
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It’s Colorama week … Join the festival!
The state’s best rodeo, a carnival, rides, market in the park, hometown parade, race (and/0r) walk across Grand Coulee Dam, a beer tent, plus hundreds of miles of undeveloped beaches on crystal clear lakes.
Let’s see what am I forgetting … oh, a TON of fun to be had this week and weekend in the big coulee at Colorama.
Local residents and visitors will be treated to the 56th Annual Colorama Festival celebration, beginning Thursday with the opening of the carnival and ending Saturday evening.
Events include the Ridge Rider Pro-West Rodeo Friday evening and Saturday, the Colorama Parade at 11 a.m. Saturday, the vendor fair at North Dam Park, Friday and Saturday; helicopter rides Friday and Saturday, the Paradise Amusement Carnival, Thursday at 3 p.m. and Friday and Saturday; the sale of Colorama buttons and gear; and a beer garden under the tent at the tennis courts at North Dam Park.
A full schedule of Colorama events can be found in today’s special Colorama Festival section.
Thinking about a visit? Watch this …
Someone just reminded me of this piece on the Grand Coulee Dam area, produced by KXLY TV for their Explorer TV series, in which I was interviewed.
They did a great job of cutting in quick and useful information, and it’s worth a few minutes of your time.
One thing I forgot to mention (one of those “I wish I had said” moments) is that the drive through here on SR 155 is actually the heart of a National Scenic Byway called The Coulee Corridor.
This KXLY video is only offered in Adobe Flash, so it may not play if you’re using a mobile device.
The Visitor Center offers interactive fun
The Grand Coulee Dam Visitor Center is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The bottle-cap-shaped building below the dam offers new exhibits designed to entertain and educate with interactive features, such as the jackhammer above. A video game lets you fly right through the dam to explore its features. Hands-on generators let you light up a miniature grid, and you can see the workings of the hydropower units.
One activity needs three to five people (perfect for a family) who sit at a table and listen to the concerns (via prerecorded video) of the many and varied people with interests affected by how the Columbia River is operated. As each player votes on various decisions, the overall plan changes and you’ll find out what your preferences did to the other parties’ interests.
It’s a great Visitor Center with knowledgeable interpreters, plus frequent movies in an upstairs theater to explain history and functions of this multipurpose dam.
For more information, call (509) 633-9265.
Windmill art is a glimpse of area’s great asset: ingenuity
I’ve often said that the most enduring legacy from the boomtown days for this community remains a sense of ingenuity. Certainly that’s what marked the contributions of thousands of people who helped design and build the biggest hydroelectric dam in North America.
Emil Gehrke’s windmills, made of what most of us might have called junk, now stand as folk art at North Dam Park, a testament to inventiveness and creativity, and perhaps moving (literally) symbols of the modern ethic of “Reduce, Re-use, Recycle.”