Beauty of Northwest Wilderness: Dry Falls/Streamboat Rock/Grand Coulee

Dry Falls is a 3.5-mile-long (5,600 m) scalloped precipice in central Washington, on the opposite side of the Upper Grand Coulee from the Columbia River, and at the head of the Lower Grand Coulee.

According to the current geological model, catastrophic flooding channeled water at 65 miles per hour through the Upper Grand Coulee and over this 400-foot (120 m) rock face at the end of the last ice age. It is estimated that the falls were five times the width of Niagara, with ten times the flow of all the current rivers in the world combined [wiki].

Steamboat Rock State Park is located near the north end of Banks Lake in the Grand Coulee, about 3,522-acre in size.

Its name is taken from the landscape's dominating feature, Steamboat Rock, a basalt butte that rises 800 feet above the lake which nearly completely surrounds it. The butte's plateau covers more than 600 acres and was used by nomadic Native American tribes and by early settlers.

During the last Ice Age, the monolith stood as an island in the new bed of the Columbia River where it had been diverted by ice dams. Once the dams burst creating massive floods, the Columbia returned to its original course, leaving Steamboat Rock as a prominent feature of the dry Grand Coulee.

Road on Grand Coulee, 2017/09/16

Power lines from Grand Coulee Dam, 2017/09/17

Dry Falls

Dry Falls Overlook, 2017/09/16

Steamboat Rock

Road on Grand Coulee approaching Steamboat Rock, 2017/09/16

Sunset at Steamboat Rock State Park, 2017/09/16

Grand Coulee

The Grand Coulee is an ancient river bed in the U.S. state of Washington. This National Natural Landmark stretches for about 60 miles (100 km) southwest from Grand Coulee Dam to Soap Lake, being bisected by Dry Falls into the Upper and Lower Grand Coulee.