tours | Grand Coulee Dam Visitors Guide

The famous laser light show on Grand Coulee Dam will begin the season Saturday night, May 28, 2022 at 10 p.m.

And TOURS ARE BACK!

After a couple covid-harried seasons, tours will begin Saturday too, from the pump-generating plant that irrigates half of Eastern Washington. Well, okay, 670,000 acres,— but really that’s impressive. You can learn a lot more on the tour.

The Bureau of Reclamation says the Grand Coulee Dam “One River, Many Voices” laser light show and the John W. Keys III Pump-Generating Plant public tours will come back on May 28.

The light show will run nightly at 10 p.m. Pacific Time through July 31. Beginning Aug. 1, the show will start at 9:30 p.m., and beginning Sept. 1 through Sept. 30, it will start at 8:30 p.m. Start times are subject to change. Tickets are not required to enjoy the light show.

Public tours at the John W. Keys III Pump-Generating Plant will be available on a first-come, first-served basis, at 10 a.m., 12 p.m., 2 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. PDT, running approximately one hour. Availability is limited and subject to change. Admission is free. For accessible accommodations, call 509-633-9265.

Reclamation will continue to monitor any changes in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance. Tours can be canceled without notice. Additional tour guidelines are available on our website at https://www.usbr.gov/pn/grandcoulee/visit/tour.html.

The Grand Coulee Dam Visitor Center is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. PDT. Admission is free.

damtourtopIMG_9943 — A stop on the top of the dam is a good photo op for visitors.

The new tours of Grand Coulee Dam take about an hour and afford visitors the opportunity to go into the Third Powerhouse and ride across the dam with a stop to look over the spillway.
Visitors this week will likely get an extra thrill when they stop for a spillway look because Bureau officials say that the facility will start spilling water sometime this week.
Visitor tours start with a briefing by tour guides who provide information about the dam, often with a humorous touch. Then its into a 20-passenger bus or a van for the driving part of the tour.
Visitors get to go through security control gates and ride to the lower portion of the Third Powerhouse, where they get out and walk into prescribed areas of the building housing six huge generators. Security is tight, but done in such a way that it isn’t intrusive.

Inside the Third Powerhouse — Visitors tour the massive Third Powerhouse

All along the way, tour guides provide pertinent information and answer scores of questions. They either have the answers at hand or are quick to admit that they don’t know.
Tours begin at 10 a.m. seven days a week and go on the hour all day long.
Tour officials said people going on the tours should arrive 15 minutes early due to security reasons.
But we’ll tell you that if it looks like a real busy season, show up an hour early.
Here’s another tip you may only get at this blog: If you have a choice between the small bus and van, take the van. Those are driven by USBR tour guides who will tell you interesting facts as they drive you around the site. The buses are staffed by bus drivers. They drive.
The tours begin at the building at the east end of the dam almost directly across from the Visitor Center. No bags or purses are allowed on the tour because of security concerns; accordingly, visitors are encouraged to lock them in their cars. That includes camera bags (although cameras are OK) and even diaper bags.
Either before or after the tour, see the interactive exhibits at the Visitor Center, and catch a short movie or two about the history of the dam.