slgwv's photos with the keyword: Grand Coulee

An enormous dry waterfall in the middle of the Grand Coulee, eastern Washington state, USA, making up the centerpiece of the eponymous state park. It was formed by the gigantic Spokane (a.k.a. Scabland, Missoula) floods during the last ice age, when a glacial dam in what's now northernmost Idaho would collapse periodically. The glacier, a tongue of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet, backed up glacial Lake Missoula into the Rocky Mountain trench, and so all that water would suddenly go sloshing across eastern Washington. The floods left behind the Channeled Scabland, a distinctive topography of buttes, coulees (flat-bottomed canyons), channels, closed basins, and enormous ripple deposits. The lighting in this pic is better than than in the one I'd posted before, from the previous year (inset).

In lower Grand Coulee, Washington state, in Dry Falls-Sun Lakes State Park. (It's one of the Sun Lakes.) Looking slightly north of west across the lake; Washington State Route 17 is following the coulee on the other side. The lake is natural, but (as is the case all around here) its level has been raised by the Columbia Basin Project.

Looking south along the Grand Coulee from the top of Steamboat Rock. Steamboat Rock State Park, Washington state, USA. Banks Lake is doubly artificial: it's formed by dams at either end of the upper Grand Coulee (above Dry Falls and above Grand Coulee Dam), and is filled by water pumped up from the Columbia River by Grand Coulee Dam! "Coulee", btw, is a localism for a flat-bottomed canyon with steep sides.

Filling the floor of the upper Grand Coulee, eastern Washington state, USA. Looking more or less north. Banks Lake is doubly artificial; it's held in the Grand Coulee by dams at either end, and filled by Columbia River water pumped up using hydropower from Grand Coulee Dam! So it's filled by an artificial river as well. It's the master holding pond for the Columbia Basin irrigation project, as all the irrigated lands lie downhill from here. It can also be used as a "peaking pond"--the pumps can be run in reverse as generators for when the electrical load peaks. In effect electricity can be stored by pumping water up into the lake. This pic gives a better scale of the lake--and remember, every drop was pumped up from the Columbia! The prominent mesa just visible at upper right is Steamboat Rock, a state park near the north end of the lake. We hiked to the top of it, with lots of pix elsewhere in this collection.

Eastern Washington state, USA. Banks Lake is doubly artificial; it's held in the Grand Coulee by dams at either end, and filled by Columbia River water pumped up using hydropower from Grand Coulee Dam! So it's filled by an artificial river as well. It's the master holding pond for the Columbia Basin irrigation project, as all the irrigated lands lie downhill from here. It can also be used as a "peaking pond"--the pumps can be run in reverse as generators for when the electrical load peaks. In effect electricity can be stored by pumping water up into the lake.