Eastern Washington’s Fablands

The Dakotas have their Badlands, we call New Mexico the Radlands and eastern Washingtons’ early settlers named theirs the Scablands, aka “not suitable for farming.”

Coulee City crush

We did not anticipate spending a long week here in the scablands. Our plan was to pass through on I-90 with a quick photo op at the big dam in Grand Coulee and onto the Cascades. The remarkable scenery demanded a longer stay and with the 4th of July weekend fast approaching we stumbled upon the City Park in Coulee City, locking down a spot for the premier summer holiday.

At first blush, Coulee City is on life support. The City Park Campground could be mistaken for a large gravel parking lot. Main Street is boarded up, except for the John Deere dealer, grain factory and US Post Office. The surrounding area is a two-lane highway with an insanely high speed limit that trucks and big rigs still manage to exceed. This presumption turned out to be incredibly wrong.

According to DataUSA, Coulee City (pop 575) is showing double digit growth in median income with an average age of 41 and home price of $145k. 95% of people have healthcare and its poverty rate in in-line with most small towns in America. It’s a city built around a chosen lifestyle of boating, fishing, hunting and outdoor recreation.

While the Ted Rice Arena is Covid-closed waiting for the 2021 return of Last Stand Rodeo, the Family Foods is the gathering place and the consolidated school marquis in the center of town posts encouraging signs for mental health. The public library, while closed for COVID, continues to broadcast free high-speed wifi. Coulee City is not suffering. As long as there is local access to groceries and beer, anything else is non-essential and is a 30 mile truck ride away.

If that sounds depressing, then you are missing the vibe. A weekend in your tent or trailer down at the Coulee City Park, right on the southern shores of Banks Lake, will get you right. The week is for working so the park is mostly empty. Come Thursday evening, the first-come, first-serve spots fill up for the weekend with family camping compounds, fire pits ablaze when the kids, seemingly oblivious to the cold lake temperature, are forced to come back to camp to warm up.

Proximity to stunning lands. No trash, no loud music, no drunken behavior. Full hook up with clean shower houses for twenty-five bucks a night, or half that if you tent. This park maybe the areas best kept secret – don’t tell. They don’t want the tourist types around. It is a locals place with nearly all in-state license plates on pick-ups pulling boats. Our Maryland license plates always attracts attention.

State Park love

The surrounding geography has all the drama of southern Utah with the addition of freshwater lakes. Our 30 mile focus area runs from the Dam, past Steamboat Rock State Park, through Coulee City, into Sun Lakes-Dry Falls State Park and out to Lake Lenore Caves Heritage Site. There are a dozen hikes to geologically wander, smooth roads with wide shoulders for e-biking the grades, a golf course, water sport rentals and free wifi at our new office on the sidewalk of Main Street Center.

Dry Falls is a geological wonder of North America. Carved by Ice Age floods more than 13,000 years ago, the former waterfall was once four times the size of Niagara Falls. Today, the 400-foot-high, 3.5-mile-wide cliff overlooks a big sky and a landscape of deep gorges and dark, reflective lakes. We saw it from the closed Visitor Center and from it’s mirror image on the other-planet Umatilla Rock Trail.

Settling down?

We are contemplating spending our life savings on 600 acres of forest and farm overlooking Lake Roosevelt. But first we have to see some more of the country before we pull the trigger. Beautiful fresh water lakes surrounded by Utah-like geologic features make this the best place we have never heard of. When the 4th is over, we will give up our City Park spot and push on into the Cascade Mountains. Until then, we are doing our best to pass for locals and take in the eastern Washington magic.