Tag Archives: amenities

Fun planned over the Fourth

The top of Grand Coulee Dam serves as an impressive venue for fireworks.

In addition, to all the fun around Grand Coulee Dam, the food and craft booths in the park and great scenery, look for three days of outstanding music when the Grand Coulee Dam Festival of America is celebrated July 2, 3 and 4.

The Town of Coulee Dam is sponsoring the music for the second straight year, and according to Mayor Quincy Snow, the town is offering an outstanding assortment of music for the three-day event.

The venue for the event is the park below the Visitor Center. Music begins Saturday, July 2, with Eric Engebretson at 4 p.m.

Eric E, as he is also known, is familiar to coulee area music fans, having been a regular for several years during the Festival of America celebration. With his voice, guitar and a digital “looper” Eric E can pump out a song from just about any year named back to the first part of the last century.

Eric E works his musical magic at the 2010 Festival of America

Snow has scheduled what he calls “happy music” for the night cap with the Mariachi Estrella DeMeico band of Wenatchee. They make their second appearance here, and will be on stage from 6 p.m. until 9:30, just before the 10 p.m. showing of the Laser Light Show.

On Sunday, music begins again at 4 p.m. with Scott Smith and Kayla Taylor, a couple of area favorites. They play country, pop and rock renditions.

At 6 p.m. Campbell Road, a Celtic band, will perform in his first appearance at the festival.

The 8 p.m. appearance of the ever popular Steve Sogura, highlights the evening. His impersonation of Elvis Presley and his music has been a favorite at the festival for years. He will perform until just before the Laser Light Show.

As Elvis, Steve Sogura works the crowd at the Grand Coulee Dam Festival of America

On Monday, July 4, at 4 p.m., Smith and Taylor will be back with their variety of music styles for another two-hour performance.

At 6 p.m., older music lovers will connect with William Florian, former lead singer with the “New Christy Minstrels.” He will perform until 8 p.m., when Sogura will rock the area with a couple of hours of Elvis music.

The concerts, all three days, are free and financed through the town of Coulee Dam’s hotel/motel tax receipts.

Hot off the press — almost

It’s not even on the streets yet, but here you get to see our latest print edition of the Grand Coulee Dam Area Visitors’ Guide, 2011-2012 issue.

Flip through it and tell us what you think in the comments!

[issuu layout=http%3A%2F%2Fskin.issuu.com%2Fv%2Fcolor%2Flayout.xml backgroundcolor=2A5083 showflipbtn=true proshowmenu=true documentid=110612041904-88c0d040a2bb43cdbbf18acbbfbe07e6 docname=2011-2012visitorguide username=starnews loadinginfotext=Grand%20Coulee%20Dam%20Area%20Visitors’%20Guide showhtmllink=true tag=beach width=600 height=388 unit=px]

A Quick Overview

Welcome to the Grand Coulee Dam area of Washington state.
Just for a quick overview, here are a few facts about the area to help you decide if you’d like to visit.

We’re about 100 miles from the eastern border with Idaho, on the dry side of Washington. Seattle-ites come here to get away from rain, and we’re even a lot drier than Spokane, about 50 miles to the east (90 by road). I used to drive all over eastern Washington on  a daily basis and routinely found it cloudier in Spokane than elsewhere, due to the mountains to the east that block the weather from moving further inland.

The dam and surrounding towns are in the northeastern tip of central Washington’s semi-arid desert, which is tucked between wheat land to the south and east, and forest, to the north and east.

We’re surrounded by water and undeveloped beaches. From my house in Coulee Dam (just below the dam in the photo above) I can drive 5 to 15 minutes in any direction to reach one of five boat launches on three different lakes offering more than 600 miles of shoreline. Beaches are mostly undeveloped because the land is federally owned and open to everyone. State, federal and private campgrounds are top notch and drop-dead gorgeous.

You won’t find any national motel chains, but many local owners have taken great pride in their facilities and can offer you a very comfortable stay. I’ve had many people tell me they were pleasantly surprised.

We have a good selection of restaurant types, including Asian, Mexican, typical American, pizza/Italian, breakfast nookish and progressive café. I like them all.

We have great hiking trails, spectacular views and abundant wildlife and fishing, three golf courses within driving distance, and even a great little airport for you pilots.

If any of this interests you, take a closer look around.