Grand Coulee Dam, Washington: Tour Review

ByChristine Updated on

Grand Coulee Dam is the largest creator of hydropower in the U.S. and is even wider than the Hoover Dam!

Not only does the dam have the ability to create such a large amount of hydropower, but it also lifts water from the Columbia River into Banks Lake, from which the water irrigates a massive amount of land as part of the Columbia Basin Project.

It’s incredibly neat to see and even better to take a free tour of the inside to learn more. We had a great time on the tour and found it all very fascinating. It’s a great day trip from Spokane, Washington or Lake Chelan.

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Grand Coulee Dam Washington as seen from the right side and below with a pool of water at the bottom and power lines overhead.

Visitor Center

Upon arriving, our first stop was the visitor center where we watched a video and wandered through the exhibits. Definitely start your visit here. The visitor center itself is also free and you can stop in whether or not you’re taking a tour.

Grand Coulee Dam Picnic Area

Just down the hill from the visitor center is a park with a great view of the bottom of the dam. The Grand Coulee Dam Picnic Area is a great place to let the kids run or have a picnic. We had lunch here before our tour and were able to get some great group shots of the four of us.

From here you can also see other tour groups on top of the dam. It really gives you a good perspective of the size of the Grand Coulee Dam and where you’ll be if you go on the tour.

Grand Coulee Dam Tour

Tour Details

The tour is free and in 2025 runs from May 25 to October 31. Tours take place at 10am, 12pm, 2pm, and 3:30pm. Tours are first come first served and last about an hour.

Start of the Tour

After lunch we headed down the road to the building where the tour would start which entailed going through a security checkpoint, almost like at the airport, and boarding buses.

From here the tour began by driving us back down alongside the dam and through the town where we learned interesting tidbits of information.

The Pump House

The first stop was the pump house where we got out of the bus and went inside to look around. Our brother-in-law had been on the tour before but it did not previously include going into the pump house so this was new to him as well.

Unfortunately, at the time of our visit the generator houses were currently off of the tour but he had been able to see at least one of these previously.

On Top of Grand Coulee Dam

From there we boarded the buses again and drove out onto the top of the dam. Here we were able to get out again and look down from either side.

I think the view down the side of the spillway was most impressive. From the top of the dam we could also see the pipes through which the water is lifted into the feeder canal and then on to Banks Lake.

Far End of the Dam

From here the buses continued to the end of the dam where it makes a jog which indicates the section which they partially renovated to allow for the addition of a third generator house.

Laser Light Show

If you’re able to stay until the evening, there is a free “One River, Many Voices” laser light show at Grand Coulee Dam that runs nightly. In 2025 the light show runs from May 24 through September 30. It will then stop running until May 2026. The seating area is just to the side of the parking lot.

The times are progressively changed during the season: 10pm May through July, 9:30pm in August, and 8:30pm in September. This would be a really fun 30 minute show to watch, especially with kids. If we ever visit Grand Coulee Dam again with our kids I would try to stay for this.

Final Thoughts

We learned a lot and really enjoyed this outing! We did think the tour felt somewhat short, but it also felt very comprehensive. We appreciated that we were able to see the dam from both inside and outside and from several vantage points. We would definitely recommend this tour.

What To Do Next

A little over half an hour away is a canyon formed by Ice Age floods with Dry Falls, what used to be the world’s largest waterfall. Dry Falls would have dwarfed Niagara Falls back in its day.

Explore Spokane, Washington and in particular its Riverfront Park where you can take a cable car ride over Spokane Falls and later wander through the beautiful gardens of Manitou Park.

Christine is the co-founder of Never Stop Adventuring, and an avid traveler who started traveling the world as a child growing up in a military family. She even lived in Germany for numerous years. Since then she has been to 48 U.S. states, 17 countries, and traveled the U.S. in an RV for over 7 years.

With her 3 kids, the adventures continued family travel style. She has planned and coordinated travel with kids for the last 10 years and shares family travel tips and tricks, destinations, costs and even the mistakes so you can be empowered to take your own family trips with confidence!