About 75,000 gallons of water per second spilling over the top of the Grand Coulee Dam.
How big is Grand Coulee Dam?
Grand Coulee Dam dwarfs the Great Pyramids of Egypt and generates more power than a million locomotives. An engineering wonder, it is also the country’s largest hydroelectric project.
Grand Coulee Dam is one of the largest concrete structures in the world, containing almost 12 million cubic yards of concrete. It towers 550 feet above bedrock (as high as the Washington Monument) and is 500 feet wide at the base. There is enough concrete in the dam to build two standard six-foot wide sidewalks around the world at the equator.
Read more facts about the big Grand Coulee Dam here
Northwest author and naturalist David George Gordon will speak about the mythical and iconic Sasquatch, aka Bigfoot, at the Grand Coulee Library on March 8 at 6:30 p.m. in a free, hour-long program.
Not all boat launches are available in the spring, when the lake is often lowered to accomodate runoff from the mountains and keep Portland from flooding
Boaters need to be aware that Lake Roosevelt, and access to it, changes dramatically throughout the year, depending on many factors, to which the Bureau of Reclamation, which operates Grand Coulee Dam, responds.
Below is a list of the minimum elevations above sea level at which you can launch a boat at launches controlled by the National Park Service.
Know before you go and check the current level of the lake. Read the column under “Forebay”. (The link is to a site maintained by the Army Corps of Engineers, which coordinates with the Bureau of Reclamation on operating the lake for flood control purposes.)
As you can see, the lowest level launch is Spring Canyon, just outside Grand Coulee, WA.
MINIMUM BOAT LAUNCH ELEVATIONS
Crescent Bay 1265′
Spring Canyon 1222′
Keller Ferry 1229′
Hansen Harbor 1253′
Jones Bay 1266′
Lincoln Mill 1245′
Hawk Creek 1281′
Seven Bays 1227′
Fort Spokane 1247′
Porcupine Bay 1243′
Hunters Camp 1230′
Gifford 1249′
Daisy 1265′
Bradbury Beach 1251′
Kettle Falls 1234′
Marcus Island 1281′
Evans 1280′
North Gorge 1280′
Snag Cove 1277′
French Rocks 1265′
Napoleon Bridge 1280′
China Bend 1277′
The Ice Age Floods Institute is offering guided hikes in the Upper Grand Coulee area this weekend to the Castle Lake Basin and the Giant Cave Arch in the Barker Canyon area. The hikes are led by geologist Gene Kiver and Bruce Bjornstad. Hikers aged 12 and up must register and pay a fee to participate. Visit the IAFI website by clicking here to read more about it or to register.
As fall approaches, minds turn to “back to school” time and the area’s big Harvest Festival, Sept. 15-17.
One of the more popular features of the Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce’s Harvest Festival may be the “Run the Dam” event, which will take place during the fall festival for the second time this year, Saturday, Sept. 16.
