Reid & Katie Madsen

A recent business trip found me in Portland, Oregon, with nothing to do for about 3 days before my next business meeting, and my return home. Instead of sitting around the hotel room I decided to drive up to Grand Coulee, Washington, and see the Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River.

I left Portland, and drove through the Columbia River gorge to Pasco, Washington, and then north to Moses Lake, Coulee City, and final;y to the city Grand Coulee — at the base of the Grand Coulee Dam.

I’ve visited Flaming Gorge, Glen Canyon, and Hoover Dams, and have always been impressed by their size, but Grand Coulee Dam is bigger than all of them combined. The three dams on the Colorado are about 400 feet wide, and around 700 feet high. The Grand Coulee Dam is nearly a mile wide (5200 ft) and 500 feet tall. Lake Roosevelt (good trivia question for anyone in Texas) lies behind the dam and is about 150 miles long. I was hoping to tour the dam itself, but due to maintenance reasons, tours were not available the day I was there.

I’ve included pictures of Grand Coulee Dam, and a few other dams downstream here.