Steamboat Rock SP, WA

Steamboat Rock SP, WA

This is a very nice state park with full hookups and dramatic scenery.  It was not on our itinerary: we bagged Farragut SP after 2 nights (had planned on 4) due to cruddy weather.  It’s cruddy here, too, but 10 degrees warmer.

Steamboat Rock

This was taken about 2 miles away from the rock; our campground is right beside it.

Grand Coulee Dam, below, completed in 1942, is a few miles north of us.  It’s nearly a mile wide, one of the largest concrete structures ever built anywhere, and it produces more electric power than any other dam in the US.

The dam is shaped like a hockey stick.  This picture shows the upper end of the stick, looking eastward.  The long concrete structure at the bottom is the west power plant which contains 10 turbines.

This shows the rest of the dam and 2 more power plants.  The smaller plant on the right is a twin of the west end plant and contains another 10 turbines; it's at the bottom of the hockey stick handle.  The larger building on the left is the paddle part of the hockey stick.  It was built in the 70s and contains 6 massive turbines that generate 2/3 of the total power produced here. 

A large number of Chinese laborers worked on the dam and that’s how it got its name.  Do you believe that?  You shouldn’t: it’s pure BS.  It’s actually named after the large coulee (ravine) where it’s located.  But, for many years, I really did think the name referred to Chinese laborers (coolies).  Duh!  The Lake Missoula floods, mentioned in an earlier post, barreled through here in an 800-foot high wall of water and carved out the Coulee.