Another great snooze fest in the morning, we got up when it suited us and both felt it was a pancakes type of morning. While Dan was in the kitchen, I went down to the river to splash my face with water and wake myself up. It was barely 9am and it was already hot, the coolness of the night before now long gone. By the time I was refreshed, breakfast was ready and we ate in Dan’s kitchen to avoid the full sun.
Before breaking camp, we unpacked everything from the hike and I packed everything back into my van. Tidy van, happy Astro chick. As I was finishing up, Cleo started barking because a man had entered our camp. I saw him have a brief encounter with Dan before he walked off. Dan reported that the man had informed him we were on National Conservation Land, which probably meant we weren’t supposed to camp there but we already knew that. Dan told him we were moving on anyway and so he seemed satisfied with that. Another semi-illegal camp we’d gotten away with!
We both dunked ourselves in the river to cool off before getting in our cars and I followed Dan out of the forest, leaving it to him to find the smoothest line out to the road. It was much easier going getting out since we could see a car parked on the tarmac not far away. I took the lead then and navigated us towards the Grand Coulee Dam which was a couple of hours drive away.
I was happy to get off the I-90 after an hour or so as we started heading north through some small towns. When we were still an hour away from our destination, it was really hotting up and I needed a bathroom break so pulled in at a Maccas. Dan got an ice cold coke to cool himself down and I was stoked to find a spigot in the middle of a piece of lawn out the back of Maccas so I filled up my water containers. A successful stop, our next one was half an hour down the road in the city of Coulee where there was apparently a disc golf course.
Before we got there, we stopped at Blue Lake for a dip. Damn, it was hot so we just took every opportunity we could get. We’d been following bodies of water along the highway for a while, but none of them had really appealed before we got to Blue where there were no reed sin the water and no salt markings on the surrounding rocks. We all dove right in, Cleo included, but didn’t stop long since we were right on the side of the highway.
In Coulee City, I pulled off at the recreation area off the highway and Dan followed. It seemed to be mainly for camping, but I didn’t see any mention of paying for day use so I drove around the park until I found a shady spot big enough to fit our two vans. I was excited for a burger lunch. The lake by which our shady spot sat next to didn’t smell too hot, being a combination of bird shit and dead fish, but it was mild and we soon got used to it. Dan took over in the kitchen again and whipped up another set of burgers while I did some blogging sitting at the concrete picnic table. It didn’t take him long to put another gourmet meal in front of me and we ate in pleasure.
Seeing a lonely tube floating out in the water, Dan considered that a good excuse to get into the water and so took Cleo for another swim. I was having none of it thanks to the smell so I stayed on the banks eating an apple for my lunch dessert. Thankfully, Dan found a shower to wash the dirty water off with so was thoroughly cooled by the time we were ready to make way. We didn’t bother with the disc golf because we hadn’t seen it and it was much too hot to partake anyway. Just before we drove out, we got to see some entertainment in the form of some recreation park goers getting a talking to by the camphost all high and mighty on his golf cart, dictating the speed limit to the tourists and threatening that if they should speed again, they’ll be told to leave. Oohh! We couldn’t believe that out of everyone there, we weren’t the ones getting in trouble!
Just outside the park, we stopped for petrol then carried on our way north towards the town of Coulee Dam. We followed the huge reservoir of Banks Lake as we drove, which we would later learn was a direct result of the Grand Coulee Dam we were about to see. If it wasn’t for the smoke haze, it would have been a beautiful sight, but the blurry horizon dulled the effect a little.
When we reached the end of the reservoir, the biggest concrete structure in North America appeared. We, along with the rest of the world, thought it was Hoover Dam, but that’s only popular because it looks magnificent and is conveniently right next to Las Vegas. At first look, the Grand Coulee Dam is definitely bigger, but doesn’t have the pleasing “v-style” aesthetics of the Hoover. We parked at the visitor’s centre and had a look at the big old structure before heading into the centre to ask about a free tour. It was 3:45pm so the man behind the desk told us to get going and drive across the other side of the dam to catch the 4pm tour and so we did.
Leaving Dan’s car and Cleo behind, we drove the mile and a half through town and over to the opposite side of the Columbia River. We were greeted by an enthusiastic tour attendant and told we could go inside the air-conditioned building to wait for our tour to begin. It soon became very obvious as the tour leader bantered with some of the people in the room that although this was a 50 minute tour, most of that time would be taken up by security process and logistics.
We looked at some of the old photos on the wall taken during the dam’s construction in the 30s, thinking how much the town looked like a prison camp sitting at the base of this huge structure taking form. When the tour began, our obese guide walked us through the security procedures that would happen and we also watched a five minute video about the security screening process. Ten minutes later, having walked through a body scanner and put all our belongings in a yellow bucket to be collected on the other side, we were all put on two buses. We drove back through town, past the visitor’s centre and a bit further to the left power bank. After a short talk outside, we took an elevator down a few dozen feet to the top of the generator units.
Unfortunately there was nothing happening since they were all getting overhauled, but we could see they were massive machines. The obese guy went through some minor details of the dam’s function while everyone peered through the plexiglass at the mechanics below, most not really paying attention. We were only down here for about five minutes before we went back up top.
Now for a bus drive across the top of the dam. Here is where I really got sad. Our guide, a fit young guy with plenty of enthusiasm, told us all about how the dam had been pre-9/11. The dam was completely open to the public, including the road going over the top. People would park on one side of the road, fish on the other and kids would jump off the bridge into Lake Roosevelt for ice cream money in the summer. Not only that, you could explore the tunnels of the dam on self-guided tours. Kids used to ride their bikes down there! Then, some assholes drove a couple of planes into a building and everything got shut down. Bull. Shit.
After driving the length of the dam, we parked halfway and got out to look over the railing to see the dammed water hundreds of feet below us. It was an impressive ramp, especially with the seepage running down the big angled wall. On the other side, Lake Roosevelt was high enough to jump off the bridge safely, if only we could have.
Back on the bus, that was the end of the tour, but our guide kept us entertained with jokes he’d told hundreds of times before. It was all a very efficiently run operation, but I’m glad it was free. All educated about the dam, we drove back towards the visitor’s centre, stopping at a supermarket on the way to get a bottle of wine and some ice cream for right that minute. Back at the visitor’s centre, Cleo was happy to see us and we all settled onto the nice green grass in front of our cars to eat ice cream and chill out a bit. The heat was really getting to be a pain in the arse and soft, shaded ground was nice.
Thinking I’d make the most of my afternoon, I wandered into the visitor’s centre to potentially use their Wifi but I found out they didn’t have any so I just walked around a bit having a look at the different exhibits, glossing over the details. The air-conditioning was a nice break from the sweltering heat. A while later, I rejoined Dan and Cleo, the latter panting her little heart out passed out on the grass. We spent the rest of the evening on the grass perusing through some tourist brochures and looking at what we could do as we head to Portland through Washington and Oregon.
The whole reason for our extremely relaxed evening was the laser show that was due to start at 9:30pm on the wall of the dam. We’d heard about it through the Lonely Planet guide and the tour guides described it to us as well. After a dinner of chicken caesar salad, it was almost time for the show and the carpark was getting busy!
Ten minutes before show start, the three rows of benches at the edge of the carpark were full of people! Around this time, each of the gates at the top of the dam opened slightly to let a constant stream of white water flow down the dam wall. It made for a perfect projector screen for the show, it was brilliant!
Right on 9:30pm, the laser box lit up and a preview started for the show ahead. Cleo was instantly uncomfortable thanks to the noise from the speakers nearby so Dan eventually put her in the car. After the preview, the show lasted a half hour and was all about the history of the dam, the region and its people. It was educational and obviously intended for families and children, but we both got a lot out of it. The lasers were brilliant, making the shapes of wolves, eagles, landscapes and fires.
The audience cheered as the show came to an end and slowly, the dam gates closed to stop the flow of water over the wall. What a show!
We joined the mass exodus of people out of the carpark to drive down to the lower park which we’d sussed out earlier as a choice camping spot. No signs, so we were set with a beautiful spot with bathrooms and a view of the dam. We parked up in a dark spot and set about brushing our teeth. When a couple of cops showed up, we knew we were getting kicked out. Dan talked to them and they were super friendly, saying that they knew there were no signs then suggesting three different spots we could park for free, depending on the type of view we wanted. From our tour, we knew that we’d just dealt with exactly half of the town’s police force. Since we were ready for bed, we took the closest option at the back of the Casino in town.
Parked on level ground between a couple of streetlights, I locked the Astro up, climbed into Dan’s van and we passed out for the night.