The drive to the Grand Coulee Dam and Lake Roosevelt was very interesting. It started in the rolling hills that had just been harvested and then freshly planted with winter wheat and then ripped through some forests and canyons. There were long lakes along the way and after the second one, it was time for a stop for the pups. It was 88 degrees outside and the water was not too cold. Maggie decided to wade out into it and then plopped down to lay in the water. I decided to go for a swim. It was nice, not too cool, and felt good.
A few miles up the road we stopped at a state park called Dry Waterfall State Park. It turns out this was at one time the largest waterfall in the world and had water flowing over it during the end of the last Ice Age. Apparently there was a very large lake called Lake Missoula that would fill up behind the glacier and then every once in a while between 13,000 and 15,000 years ago, the ice dam I would break and the water would travel all the way from Northern Idaho/Montana to the coast of the Pacific Ocean. All the lakes that we just passed and swam in were part of the old waterfall as it ate its way up the valley. The lakes, soap lake, Lenore Lake, Alkali Lake, blue Lake, Park Lake, banks Lake, and finally Lake Roosevelt at the Cooley Dam were all part if the massive flood valley. It’s really rather interesting if you want to read.
https://www.glaciallakemissoula.org.
And a video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iesn0iX-oWw
We made it to the Grand coulee Dam and did a quick tour of the visitors center. They had some great displays of the hydroelectric plant. Initially the plant had two hydroelectric generation stations, later on they added a third that does more than the other two combined. We toured the town a bit and found this really cool shop that had just about everything so we bought some postcards and some stickers, and a paint stick.
Right outside of town there was a really nice campground at the state park so we headed over there. I managed to figure out how to make a roast in tinfoil in the oven and was able to shred that for later use as burritos, etc. Lake Roosevelt is supposedly 300 miles long as a dams up the Columbia river.
We got up to a beautiful morning and took a nice walk on the beach at the NPS park. This place has several hundred parking spots so in the height of summer it must be a busy place. The pups, especially Zuzu, really enjoyed zipping around in the sand.
We drove to our next stop, the Nez Perce NHS, and spent an hour at the visitors center looking at the displays and maps. This place was more of a celebration of the tribe and its history and the lands they traveled during the seasons. The actual NHS has over a dozen markers throughout the park to designate their significance. We passed through many of those later in the day and the next morning.
Camp was free in the little city park of Greer. When we pulled in three deer were grazing along the edge. We walked the pups and found wild red and golden plums ripe for picking along the old rail tracks. Kathy enjoyed gathering several pounds of each. A master chef friend of ours used some to make a delicious chicken dinner with plum topping. More on that later.
here are some additional photos for the days.
https://www.overlandadventureexcursions.com/photos-albums/nggallery/album/20250917-18-grand-coulee