Grand Coulee Dam announces summer season hours

The Grand Coulee Dam visitor center is open daily and public tours are being offered. Currently the visitor center is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Tours are given daily into the John W. Keys, III Pump-Generating Plant at 10 a.m., noon, 2 p.m. and 4 p.m.

Visitors can ride a shuttle bus to the pumping plant where they can view the gigantic pumps that lift water from Lake Roosevelt to be delivered throughout the Columbia Basin Irrigation Project.

Visitors can then ride the shuttle bus across the top of Grand Coulee Dam for spectacular views of Lake Roosevelt and the Columbia River as it winds through the town of Coulee Dam.

The one-hour tours are on a first-come, first-served basis. Also, no reservations are taken and space is limited.

Beginning Saturday, May 26, the visitor center hours are extended from 8:30 a.m. to 11 p.m., during the summer season. This also marks the beginning of the popular Laser Light Show, which runs nightly through the end of September.

Grand Coulee Dam is located on the Columbia River about 90 miles west of Spokane. It was completed in 1941 and serves as a multi-purpose facility providing water for irrigation, recreation, fish and wildlife, hydroelectric power production, and also flood control.

For more information, call the visitor center at 509-633-9265.