Skip to main content

Washington State Route 155 and the Coulee Corridor

I recently took US 2 across Washington State from Leavenworth to Spokane, but decided to make a detour up to the Grand Coulee Dam. The detour took me up WA 155 from Coulee City along Banks Lake to Grand Coulee, through a place where roads meets epic geologic history. WA 155 is part of the Coulee Corridor National Scenic Byway, boasting quite a number of scenic views as it goes through the Grand Coulee.


The story of this stretch of land begins a long time ago, during the Ice Age. There was a large ice sheet known as the Cordilleran ice sheet that covered western Canada, as well as portions of Idaho, Montana and Washington State. Towards the end of this glaciation, about 12,000-15,000 years ago, a large ice dam blocked the Clark Fork River in the Idaho Panhandle, creating Glacial Lake Missoula. Glacial Lake Missoula was a massive lake 2,000 feet deep, filling the valleys of western Montana, stretching more than 200 miles. At its maximum height and extent, the lake contained more than 500 cubic miles of water. Every so often, the ice dam would fail, resulting in a large catastrophic flood, rushing across northern Idaho and eastern and central Washington, down the Columbia River, through the Columbia River Gorge, and finally poured into the Pacific Ocean at the mouth of the Columbia River.

Thundering waves and chunks of ice stripped away hundreds of feet of soil, carved  mountainsides into deep canyons, or coulees, into the underlying bedrock, deposited giant ripple marks, created the Channeled Scablands of Eastern Washington and carved the Columbia River Gorge. When Lake Missoula burst through the ice dam and exploded downstream, it did so at a rate 10 times the combined flow of all the rivers of the world and at speeds of about 65 miles an hour, draining in as little as 48 hours. This towering mass of water and ice literally shook the ground as it thundered toward the Pacific Ocean. Grand Coulee, along with Dry Falls and Palouse Falls were all were created by these flood waters.

Today, the flooding is over, but the evidence of the Missoula Floods remain. WA 155 travels alongside a canyon that was once one of the channels of the Columbia River during these floods. It makes for a nice and memorable drive as the road meanders along the east bank of the 27 mile long Banks Lake and passes by Steamboat Rock State Park. Let's take a ride now, shall we?


We start near Coulee City, where US 2 veers east through rolling hills and pastures on its way to Spokane. We're some 27 miles away from the Grand Coulee Dam at this point. A few miles southwest of here is Dry Falls, which is an ancient waterfall that was once the world's largest waterfall.

You can start to make out the canyon walls that make up the edges of the coulee. There's also some grazing land for cattle.

Riding the edge of the canyon that will follow the roadway most of the way to the town of Electric City.
I spy a grand opening...

And boom goes the dynamite. That's an incredible view.
Banks Lake to our left, canyon walls to our right.

Obligatory WA 155 shield photo.

Steamboat Rock
Heading into the Northrup Canyon. This is a good area to go hiking and even see bald eagles during the winter.

Back to Banks Lake and canyon walls.
Getting into the outskirts of Electric City...

...and arriving at the junction of WA 155 and WA 174 in Grand Coulee. Both towns are near the Grand Coulee Dam. This is where our story ends, but there is a neat engineering marvel that you should see first.
If you so desire, you can check out the Grand Coulee Dam, which is just a couple miles to the north.


Sources and Links:
Scenic Washington State 365 - Coulee Corridor National Scenic Byway
Montana Natural History Center - Glacial Lake Missoula
The Columbia River: A Photographic Journey - Missoula Floods



How to Get There:

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The 1915-era Teilman Bridge (the only known Concrete Pony Truss Bridge in California)

The Teilman Bridge is a semi-abandoned structure over Fresno Slough west of Burrell siding near the intersection of Elkhorn Avenue and Elkhorn Grade.  This structure is the only known Concrete Pony Truss Bridge constructed in California and was designed by Ingvart Teilman.  Teilman's Bridge would open in late 1915 when the Elkhorn Grade was the primary road between Fresno and Coalinga.  The structure would be replaced in 1991 but was left standing as it carries pipelines over Fresno Slough.  Part 1; the history of the Teilman Bridge In the early Twentieth Century the most direct highway between Fresno and Coalinga followed the Elkhorn Grade.  The Elkhorn Grade began at Fresno Slough a short distance west of Burrell siding.  From Fresno Slough the Elkhorn Grade followed a generally southwestern course through San Joaquin Valley into the Kettleman Hills towards Coalinga.   The Elkhorn Grade can be seen on the  1914 C.F. Weber map of Fresno Coun...

The Dummy Lights of New York

  A relic of the early days of motoring, dummy lights were traffic lights  that  were  placed  in the middle of a street intersection. In those early days, traffic shuffled through busy intersections with the help of a police officer who stood on top of a pedestal. As technology improved and electric traffic signals became commonplace, they were also  originally  positioned on a platform at the center of the intersection. Those traffic signals became known as  " dummy lights "  and were common until  traffic lights were moved  onto wires and poles that crossed above the intersection.  In New York State, only a handful of these dummy lights exist. The dummy lights  are found  in the Hudson Valley towns of Beacon and Croton-on-Hudson, plus there is an ongoing tug of war in Canajoharie in the Mohawk Valley, where their dummy light has been knocked down and replaced a few times. The dummy light in Canajoharie is currently...

Prunedale Road (Monterey County)

Prunedale Road is a short 2.6-mile-long frontage corridor of US Route 101 in the namesake Monterey County community of Prunedale.  Prior to 1932 US Route 101 bypassed Prunedale in favor of the San Juan Grade to the east.  Prunedale Road along with nearby Moro Road served as an alternative connecting highway between Salinas and San Juan Bautista.  Following the realignment of US Route 101 onto the Prunedale Cutoff the former through route along Prunedale Road would be rendered as a western frontage.   Part 1; the history of Prunedale Road Prunedale Road is located in and is named after the Monterey County community of Prunedale.  Said community was founded near the junction of San Migeul Canyon, Langley Canyon and Echo Valley.  Watsonville settler Charles Langley (namesake of Langley Canyon) was one of the prominent early community settlers.  The Prunedale Post Office would open for the first time in 1894 but would close by 1908.  Early agricu...