Basic Questions about the Grand Coulee Dam Area

What town am I in?

There are four towns adjacent to the Grand Coulee Dam. The city of Grand Coulee is above the dam. Electric City is two miles west of Grand Coulee. These two municipalities are located in Grant County. To the north, the town of Coulee Dam is directly below the dam. Coulee Dam — divided by the river — lies within three counties: Okanogan County on the east side of the river, and Douglas County and a tiny portion of Grant County on the west side of the river. The town of Elmer City, less than two miles north of Coulee Dam, also is in Okanogan County. The Colville Indian Reservation begins in the middle of the Columbia River Bridge in Coulee Dam and extends north to Omak. The east side of Coulee Dam and the town of Elmer City are within the boundaries of the reservation.

What time does the laser light show begin?

10 p.m. from the end of May through July 31, 9:30 p.m. until Sept. 1, 8:30 p.m. through Sept. 30.

No tickets are needed; it’s free. And if you watch from your car, you can tune in on a radio to hear its important audio on 90.1 FM.

Where can I view this show?

•The best location: the Grand Coulee Dam Visitor Center (VC) at the dam and from the park below the VC. These areas are covered by an outdoor sound system.

•On the east side of the bridge and across the street from the Coulee Dam Casino, a terraced, grassy park makes a great place to watch the show and hear the accompanying audio.

•Other view spots: from Douglas Park in Coulee Dam, from Crown Point Vista atop the granite cliffs and above Lake Rufus Woods — access from SR-174 toward Bridgeport.

• The USBR broadcasts the audio portion of the Laser Light Show nightly at 99.9, 98.5, 91.9 FM..

How do I take a tour of Grand Coulee Dam?

In 2023, public tours at the John W. Keys III PumpGenerating Plant are offered May 29–Oct. 31. Tours are available on a first-come, first-served basis, running approximately one hour. Availability is limited and subject to change. Tours can be canceled without notice and admission is free.

Tours start at 10 a.m., noon, 2 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. (Pacific Time):

Tour participants must pass through a metal detector prior to beginning the tour. Weapons, purses, bags, backpacks, fanny packs, and packages are not permit- ted on the tour. You may bring cameras on the tour, but all camera cases must remain in vehicles. Onsite storage for personal belongings is unavailable.

From the visitor center, turn right onto Highway 155 (Columbia Avenue) and head northwest toward the Columbia River Bridge and continue straight onto Roosevelt Way. Continue straight to enter the fenced area. At the stop sign, turn left on Bureau Road and follow the road to Marina Way. The tour center is approximately one-half mile down on Marina Way.

Where are public restrooms?

•Steamboat Rock State Park, SR-155 eight miles south of Electric City

•Coulee Playland, SR-155, Electric City

•North Dam Park, SR-155, west of Grand Coulee

•Grand Coulee City Hall, SR-155, Grand Coulee

•Grand Coulee City Park, SR-174

•Etheta Anderson Memorial Library, Grand Coulee

• Spring Canyon, Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area, SR-174 east

•Visitor Center and park below

•Mason City Memorial Park, Coulee Dam, across street from Havest Foods and Variety

•Coulee Dam Town Hall, 300 Lincoln, Coulee Dam

Where can I find overnight accommodations?

•AREA MOTELS:

Coulee Dam - Columbia River Inn, 10 Lincoln Ave., 509-633-2100, 800-633-6421; Coulee House Inn and Suites, 110 Roosevelt Way, 509-633-1101, 800-715-7767

Grand Coulee - Grand Coulee Center Lodge, 404 Spokane Way, 509-633-2860, 866-633-2860; TrailWest Motel, 108 Spokane Way, 509-633-3155

Electric City - The Skydeck Motel, on Banks Lake, 509-633-0290

• AREA CAMPGROUNDS - Steamboat Rock State Park on Banks Lake, 11 miles south of Electric City on SR155, 509-633-1304; Spring Canyon on Lake Roosevelt, 1.4 miles east of Grand Coulee on SR-174, 509-6339188; Coulee Playland Resort on Banks Lake in Electric City, 509-633-2671; Lakeview Terrace Mobile Park, 2.4 miles east of Grand Coulee on SR-174, 509-633-2169; King’s Court, SR-174 toward Wilbur, 509-633-3655.

Where can I eat?

Family Style

Hometown Pizza, 121 Bridgeport Hwy.Grand Coulee

PK’s Culinary, 415 Midway Ave., Grand Coulee

HiDam Tavern, Grand Coulee

Voltage Coffee House, Grand Coulee

The Spillway in Coulee Dam Casino

Fast Foods

Bens, Grand Coulee, Coulee Dam

HiDam Tavern, Grand Coulee

Horn’s Electric City Bar & Grill, Electric City

Specialty

Café Espresso, Grand Coulee

Siam Palace (Chinese/Thai/American), Main St., Grand Coulee

La Presa (Mexican), SR-174, Grand Coulee

Where can I have a picnic?

•Steamboat Rock State Park, SR-155, eight miles south of Electric City in the Grand Coulee

•Spring Canyon, SR-174 east toward Spokane

•Grand Coulee Dam’s Visitor Center Park, below dam. Roosevelt Memorial Park. (Look for the bust of Franklin D. Roosevelt off SR155 above the top of the dam.)

• Municipal parks are located at: North Dam Park, SR-155, Grand Coulee (covered eating area); Grand Coulee City Park, SR-174 east toward Spokane; Douglas Park, SR-155, Coulee Dam; Cole Park, just off SR-155 on Columbia Avenue (do not cross Columbia River Bridge); Mason City Memorial Park, across street from Coulee Dam shopping center; National Park Service headquarters, Crest Drive, Coulee Dam.

Where can I launch a boat?

Public launches on Banks Lake are at: Coulee Playland, Jones Bay, Northrup Point and Steamboat Rock State Park. On Lake Roosevelt, local launch ramps are at Crescent Bay in the city of Grand Coulee, and at Spring Canyon campground, both operated by the National Park Service. The Columbia River below Grand Coulee Dam (Lake Rufus Woods) can be accessed at Seaton's Grove, north of Elmer City.

Where can I buy postcards, gifts, and souvenirs?

Many area retailers carry postcards, as do motels, restaurants and area concessionaires.

•In Coulee Dam:

Colville Tribal Museum

Harvest Foods & Variety

Coulee View & Fuel

•In Grand Coulee:

Coulee Wall Variety, Four-Corners, Spring Canyon Conoco

Visitor

• In Electric City:

Coulee Playland Resort

A&S Grocery

Coulee Pioneer Museum

•Outer Area: Grant County Museum, Ephrata River Rue, Keller Ferry

What else is there to do besides tour the dam?

•12 Tribes Coulee Dam Casino, 516 Birch, Coulee Dam

•Banks Lake Golf Course, public golf, SR-155 west of Electric City, 7 a.m.dark

• Hikingtrailsaboundinthecouleearea. See Hike section pages 38-39.

•Houseboat, skiing and fishing boat rentals on Lake Roosevelt

• Boating on Banks Lake, Lake Roosevelt and Rufus Woods Lake; Small boat, party boat and pedal boat rentals at Coulee Playland, Electric City

• Swimming at Steamboat Rock State Park and Coulee

Playland on Banks Lake, and at Spring Canyon on Lake Roosevelt

•Canoeing on Crescent Lake, below the city of Grand Coulee

•View Gehrke Windmills, North Dam Park, Grand Coulee

•Panoramic view of Grand Coulee Dam at Crown Point Vista. Take Highway 174 two miles west toward Bridgeport and watch for signs. Great spot for camera buffs.

•Bowling at Riverview Lanes in Coulee Dam

•Public library, Federal Avenue, Grand Coulee

•Tennis courts at North Dam Park, Grand Coulee; behind the Credit Union in Coulee Dam's Cole Park; and at Lake Roosevelt High School

•Year-round fishing

•Skate Park, North Dam

•See gcdvisitor.com for updates and other activities.

Where are the grocery stores/mini marts?

• Electric City — A&S Grocery, Coulee Playland.

• Grand Coulee — 4 Corners where SR-174/155 meet; Spring Canyon on Grand Coulee Ave., Safeway - SR-174.

• Coulee Dam — Harvest Foods & Variety, Coulee View, 2 Okanogan Ave.

Where can I get propane?

4-Corners Chevron, Coulee Wall Variety Store, in Grand Coulee, Coulee Playland, in Electric City, and Harvest Foods in Coulee Dam. Refill RV propane tanks at Coulee Hardware.

Where are holding tanks dumped?

Coulee Playland, Electric City; Steamboat Rock State Park on Banks Lake; Spring Canyon on Lake Roosevelt; and Coulee Dam's station on Stevens Ave., one block off Columbia, near Coulee View 2 Mini Mart.

Is medical care available?

Coulee Medical Center is open seven days a week, with the emergency room open 24 hours a day in Grand Coulee. Take SR-174 toward Bridgeport, watch for road signs. The center is on the right just past the four-corners as you head toward Bridgeport.

Grand Coulee Dam Facts

When was Grand Coulee Dam built and by whom?

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation began construction of Grand Coulee Dam in 1933 as the key structure in its multipurpose Columbia Basin Project. It has since become the linchpin in harnessing the second largest river in the United States. It took nine years to build the dam, but even more years of battling and political maneuvering before construction started. While it was recognized early in the century that the Columbia Basin had rich farmland that only needed water to flourish, the method for providing that water caused much controversy. A Spokane group insisted upon a

134-mile gravity-flow canal from Lake Pend Oreille to the Basin, while a Wenatchee/Central Washington group favored building a big dam on the Columbia at Grand Coulee. The battle raged for 13 years.

At its conclusion, President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized $60 million to get the dam project started.

In the Grand Coulee, life changed dramatically and quickly once work on the dam began in 1933. Not only did the undertaking of this massive project forever change the shape of the river, but overnight it created towns where nothing but sagebrush, sand and rocks had previously existed.

Thousands came to the Grand Coulee looking for work in the midst of the Depression. They worked around the clock to finish the dam by 1942.

Big jobs on the biggest power facility

Above, workers are doing maintenance on the drum gates on top of the spillway on Grand Coulee Dam. Below, a shot of the (almost) full mile, wide-plus dam. The Left Powerhouse is in the foreground on the right, the Right Powerhouse is tucked past the spillway, and the Third Powerhouse extends to the left from there.The two photos together give some sense of the size of the dam, the power from which can be used to support other renewable energy production, such as wind and solar, which does not have ready-made energy storage, like Lake Roosevelt. Grand Coulee is the largest energy production plant in North America by capacity. Lake Roosevelt must be lowered at least 35 feet from full pool to do the work each spring on the drum gates.

How many dams are on the Columbia River?

Altogether, a total of 11 dams have been built on the river in the United States, as it winds its way from the Canadian border toward the Pacific Ocean; Grand Coulee Dam is the keystone of the Columbia River system dams. Five other dams in the Big Bend region of the river also offer facilities for visitors — Chief Joseph Dam on Highway 17 in Bridgeport; Wells Dam, south of Brewster on Highway 97; Rocky Reach Dam, north of Wenatchee on Highway 97; Wanapum Dam, six miles south of the I-90 crossing of the Columbia; and Priest Rapids Dam on Highway 243.

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 its base. There is enough concrete in the dam to build two standard six-foot-wide sidewalks around the world at the equator.

How is the electricity produced?

Electricity is generated by unseen torrents of water rushing through the turbines within the dam’s hydroelectric plants. There are three powerhouses at Grand Coulee Dam with a total rated capacity of 6,809 megawatts, making this dam the largest hydroelectric producer in the United States.

What is the dam’s main purpose?

Actually, Grand Coulee Dam has three important functions: irrigation, power production and flood control. Although electricity was not foreseen as a primary function when the dam was built, today the production of electrical energy is one of Grand Coulee Dam’s most important jobs. Recreation is another important function, facilitated by the Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area.

How many acres does Grand Coulee Dam help irrigate?

Water supplied by Grand Coulee Dam irrigates more than 670,000 acres of rich farmland in the Columbia Basin annually.

Water from Lake Roosevelt (behind the dam) is lifted 280 feet up a hillside to flow into the Banks Lake reservoir, where it starts a journey that eventually covers an area more than twice the size of the state of Delaware. Each of the six conventional pumps in Grand Coulee’s Pump-Generator Plant is powered by a 65,000-horsepower motor and will pump 1,600 cubic feet of water per second, or 781,128 gallons per minute.

In addition, six pump-generators, each having a 67,500-horsepower rating, can pump 1,948 cubic feet of water per second. One of these 12 units can fill the water needs of a city the size of Chicago, Illinois.

As the drum gates at the top of the spillway lower, water falls from Lake Roosevelt as the USBR works to maintain prescribed flood control levels in the spring. Spills don’t always happen. In fact, they represent wasted energy sometimes made necessary simply by too much water in a wet year, not enough demand for electricity at the time, or sometimes both. Coordinating the flow of water (and energy) coming down the Columbia River is a multipleagency effort that involves reading or anticipating snowpack levels in Canada, rainfall, energy needs, and more.

How does Grand Coulee Dam help in flood control?

Each spring, the water level of Lake Roosevelt, behind Grand Coulee Dam, is lowered to make space for massive amounts of water that will flow down the Columbia River in late spring and summer as rising temperatures melt snow in the Rocky Mountains. The water is “captured” in the lake to prevent flooding downstream and to provide a steady flow of water for the whole year.

How big is Lake Roosevelt behind Grand Coulee Dam?

The dam’s blocking of the Columbia River has created Franklin D. Roosevelt Lake, which extends 151 miles upstream to the Canadian border. The reservoir has a shoreline of 660 miles, a surface area of 82,000 acres, and a total storage capacity of 9,562,000 acrefeet of water.

How is Lake Roosevelt managed for public recreation?

Recreation on the lake is managed cooperatively by three federal agencies and two Indian tribes. The National Park Service has authority for the portion of the lake and adjacent shoreland comprising the Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area (LRNRA). The Colville Confederated Tribes and the Spokane Tribe manage public recreation along the areas of the lake and shoreline that fall within their reservation boundaries. Other partners cooperating in the lake’s management are the Bureau of Reclamation and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Each year, more than a million visitors enjoy the beauty and recreational opportunities of the Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area.

How do I take a tour of Grand Coulee Dam?

This 50-minute guided tour is free of charge and available only on a first-come, first-served basis. The tour begins at the tour building, on the east side of the river above the Third Power Plant, where you will board a van and be taken to the Pump-Generating Plant. Highlights include a look at the large pumps used for transporting water from Lake Roosevelt to the Columbia Basin Irrigation Project, concluding with a van ride across the top of the dam. Handicapaccessible tours are available with advanced notice by calling (509) 633-9265.

All tour participants are required to pass through a metal detector prior to beginning the tour. Weapons, purses, bags, backpacks, fanny packs, and packages are not permitted on the tour. Cameras, but not camera cases, are allowed on the tour. On-site storage for personal belongings is not available. Be sure to lock your car. A federal armed security officer will escort all public tours.

A foggy winter sunrise colors the penstocks above the pump-generating plant at Grand Coulee Dam, which carry water pumped up from Lake Roosevelt to irrigate hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland in the Columbia Basin. Tours are offered of the John W. Keys III Pump-Generating plant. — Craig Brougher photo