#8 - Grand Coulee Dam

Saturday, August 25, 2018

We went on a tour of the dam this morning and I was a little bored just at the thought of it. Interestingly enough, I learned so much that I never knew and now, be forewarned, you're going to hear it. ☺
 
Grand Coulee Dam, located on the mighty Columbia River, is one of largest concrete structures in the world. It's 500 ft thick at its base (over 1-1/2 lengths of a football field) and has enough concrete to build a sidewalk, 4 feet wide, wrapped twice around the equator or 50,000 miles! It's not that tall (280 ft water drop) but it is also the largest hydroelectric power producer in the US, generating 20 billion kilowatts of electricity per year that sends power to 11 states and parts of Canada. Enough for 4.2 million households. I was impressed. We took a bus to the top of the dam and looked down and we went to an observation room where you could see all the big generators. Security is high. We had to go through a metal detector and bring nothing but a cell phone or camera, without cases. Before 9/11, you could walk all over the place, but those days are over.

At night they have a beautiful laser light show, that tells the history of the dam and its impact on American life through the years. We don't ride the bike at night much, but seeing that the dam was practically in our back yard, we ventured out around 9:30pm and really enjoyed it.

Moving on tomorrow...we have to try and get out of this smoke.

Happy trails. 🎵🎵