Grand Coulee Dam and More

We woke up this morning to beautiful blue skies and warmer temps (it's been in the high 50's low 60's the last few days), so that was a pleasant start to the day. Driving to breakfast, we saw this cute little windmill garden . . .

Gehrke Windmill Garden

About 50 metal windmills made out of everything you can think of -

somebody has a lot of extra time on their hands!

Next we headed over to take the tour through the Grand Coulee Dam. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable about the dam, and he gave us way more information than my pour little brain could absorb. But here's what I remember . . .

Coulee is a French word meaning stream bed, or where water flows. The Grand Coulee Dam is the largest dam in the USA and the fifth largest in the world - South America has three dams that are larger, and China has one. There are plans to build one in Africa in the near future that will be even larger than any of these. Grand Coulee is one of the largest (possibly THE largest) concrete structure in the world - it is 550 ft. high, 500 ft. wide at the base, 5,223 ft. long, and contains over 12,000,000 cubic yards of concrete! That's a whole bunch!

Franklin D. Roosevelt Lake & the Face of the Dam

The dam was created as a way to control the Columbia River, and originally to provide water to the farms in the area, and also to generate electricity of course. The Columbia River flows into the Franklin D. Roosevelt Lake, which flows 151 miles from the Canadian Border to the dam. The water from the lake goes through the penstocks, through the generators and out into Banks Lake behind the dam, and eventually back to the Columbia River . . .

Grand Coulee Dam

The tour took us inside the dam . . the blue circle in the photo below is the top of one of the six humongous generators in this powerhouse (there are three powerhouses).

The cranes have a lifting capacity of 2,000 tons (that's NOT a typo) -

and can lift the generator if it needs repair or replacement.

One of the Generators

These things are so huge, the shaft from the turbine to the generator is 8 feet in diameter, and the generator itself is somewhere between 45-50 feet in diameter - twice as large as the generators at Hoover Dam. And it turns at about 750 RPM. Amazing!

On top of the Dam

No one except the tour guides are allowed to drive over the dam (since 9-11). We had to go through a security check before the tour, and we were escorted by armed guards.

Lake Roosevelt on the front of the dam

Banks Lake behind the dam. Note the bridge in the background

The largest of the three powerhouses -

Each of the 6 Penstocks can process 12 times the water of Hoover Dam

The Electrical Towers and Power Lines

Looking straight down over the side of the dam

The bridge that you saw in the background above.

After the tour, we drove over the bridge and continued West on Hwy 174. Soon we came to yet another Dam, the Chief Joseph Dam (named for a Nez Perce Indian Chief), which is the next largest electricity-producing dam after Grand Coulee.

Chief Joseph Dam

Our route took us from Hwy 174 to Hwy 17 and for a time looked like this . . .

Shortly after passing the Chief Joseph Dam, we turned South on Hwy 97 and started driving alongside the Columbia River and past large orchards of . . .

Pears

and Apples

Miles and miles of Apple Orchards along the Columbia River

The fruit is ready for harvest, and many of the orchards already had large crates placed throughout, soon to be filled with gorgeous fruit. Washington state is a huge producer of food - wheat in the eastern portion, and apples, pears, also peaches and grapes here in the center of the state. So now we know where all those yummy apples come from!

Eventually we reconnected with Hwy 2 and headed West again, stopping for the night in a cute little Bavarian town called Leavenworth . . .

The main street of town

This is a really cute little tourist town, and we enjoyed strolling down the streets and wandering through the shops. We were getting hungry, and stopped at the Cafe Crista to sample some German cuisine. Not knowing ANY thing about German food, we asked the waiter for help, and followed his recommendation. Our hauptspeisen (main course) was Jager Schnitzel, which is a pork cutlet breaded and pan-fried, with a mushroom sauce over it. It came with pan-fried red potatoes and red cabbage, which I was surprised to find that I really liked - it had a nice sweet taste. And for dessert - apple strudel with vanilla sauce. Super good!

My German dinner

Tomorrow we are heading up to Bellingham for a visit with my cousin Joyce and her hubby. I'm really excited to see her again!