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It’s Colorama time in the Coulee!

 

Kids loving the Colorado Canival rides make the cover of The Star special section.
Kids loving the Colorado Canival rides make the cover of The Star special section. View the whole publication below.

As of Tuesday morning, there were 50 entries for the annual Colorama Parade, but 10 of those had just come in on Monday, said Peggy Nevsimal, director of the sponsoring Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce.

The parade is the Saturday sendoff to the whole lot of fun activities we call Colorama every May. The festival includes the Run the Dam early Saturday morning, the parade, the button drawing, arts and crafts and stuff in the park, the rodeo, the carnival, and the live entertainment in the beer garden at North Dam Park.

The final parade count will likely be closer to 60-65 entries.

That’s because the parade is one where you’re very likely to see someone you know who is in it to show pride in the community, or to advetise a great cause, or just for fun.

So when someone shows up the morning of the parade with a nice smile and application in hand, parade chair Tammy Norris is likely to say, “Oh, all right! You’re number 65, get in line.”

You can still be part of the big Colorama Parade, May 9.

You might spare some confusion if you stop by the Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce office or go online to grandcouleedam.org for your parade entry form if you want be part of the parade and dazzle your family and friends along the parade route.

You’ll see entries in eight different categories: Community entry, Organization/club, Business, School band, Classic car, Hot Rod, Equestrian, and Junior.

The parade begins at 11 a.m. Saturday, May 9, near the staging area on Spokane Way in front of the former Center Elementary School. The route, about a mile long, takes just over an hour to complete.

The route follows Federal Avenue to Midway Avenue (SR155), takes Midway south to the Four Corners intersection with SR 174.

 

Boating, swimming and fishing

Lake level held down for maintenance on dam

The boat launch at Crescent Bay on Lake Roosevelt is currently high and dry, but Spring Canyon and up to 11 of 22 launches in the Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area still reach the water. Spring Canyon, the lowest reaching launch, goes down to elevation 1,222.
The boat launch at Crescent Bay on Lake Roosevelt is currently high and dry, but Spring Canyon and up to 11 of 22 launches in the Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area still reach the water. Spring Canyon, the lowest reaching launch, goes down to elevation 1,222.

Lake Roosevelt is being held at a level about 47 feet below the full mark while maintnenace is completed on the drum gates that hold the water back when the lake is full.

The Bureau of Reclamation, which operates Grand Coulee Dam, reports the lake will likely remain below 1,255 feet above sea level until May 10.

The water forecast for the Columbia River drainage above Grand Coulee Dam, from April to August this year, is estimated to 82.5 percent of normal, so the maximum level allowed for flood control right now would actually be 1,283.3 feet, less than 7 feet below spilling over.

But such flood control elevations are the maximum elevations allowed to ensure enough room in the lake for the spring runoff. Actual elevations may be lower “based on power demand, unforeseen power emergencies, changes in weather events, maintenance on the dam, etc,” the bureau explains on its website.

Boating, swimming and fishing, Soon

Army Corps to lower water level at Rufus Woods April 11-12

Fishing on Lake Rufus Woods
Anglers ply the waters of Lake Rufus Woods, behind Chief Joseph Dam in this 2010 photo

 

SEATTLE – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is lowering the reservoir water level upstream of Chief Joseph Dam by 1.5-2.5 feet below normal pool this weekend, but the Seaton’s Grove boat launch will remain open.

Water managers expect that work scheduled for April 11-12, to prepare for a bank stabilization project, will lower Lake Rufus Woods from its normal low-pool level of 950 feet above sea level to a lower elevation between 947.5-948.5 feet.

The project will eventually address erosion problems by placing bank-stabilizing rock armor and native plantings along 700 feet of shoreline on the Columbia River’s northeastern bank downstream of Seaton’s Grove boat ramp.

To prepare the site for construction, the waterline is being lowered this weekend for an inspection of conditions, and to remove vegetation and other obstructions that could impact bank protection integrity.

Water levels are expected to return to normal April 13.

A Corps spokesman said he didn’t know when the actual construction work would take place or how long it would take.

When complete, the structure will provide protection against reservoir erosive forces, the Corps stated in a press release Friday.

The Corps said that throughout the planning process it coordinated with the Environmental Protection Agency, Bureau of Reclamation, Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, Washington Department of Ecology, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife.

Astounding Facts, In Your Own Words, To Dos

What a view!

A lucky dog sniffs a great view. Ed Grenier (@roscoejefferson) photo
A lucky dog sniffs a great view. Ed Grenier (@roscoejefferson) photo

Here’s another fine use of Instagram: highlighting the great hikes the Grand Coulee Dam area offers. This shot is of a very happy dog on top of Steamboat Rock, out in the midst of Banks Lake at the Steamboat Rock State Park. It’s a hunk of earth that didn’t wash away in the series of catastrophic floods that carved the Grand Coulee at the end the last ice age.

So standing atop the rock, about 800 feet above the floor of the Grand Coulee, you can imagine the torrents that flowed through the area thousands of years ago, leaving this dramatic landscape.

The dog may not get that, but he certainly enjoys it anyway.