Places in Washington: Sun Lakes-Dry Falls State Park

Basic Information

• Name: Sun Lakes-Dry Falls State Park
• Where: Coulee City, Washington
• Cost: $10 for one day; annual pass $30
• More Information: Washington State Parks website

Directions

From Spokane take Highway 2 west all the way to Coulee City.  Just outside of Coulee City make a left on to Highway 17 and a short distance later the visitor center for Dry Falls can be seen.

Parking

There is a large lot at the Dry Falls lookout area.  It is a very busy lot, but with people constantly coming and going it is not hard to find parking.  There is also a couple of small eateries near the parking lot where it is possible to buy hot dogs and other simple food from.

Narrative

My kids and I had watched the PBS Show Eons that had an episode about megafloods that carved out the desert landscape of Eastern Washington.  During the episode Dry Falls was prominently featured as the largest waterfall known to have existed in the world.  An oversized signboard in the parking lot explains the areas geological history:

The waterfall was created during the last Ice Age when a glacial dam in modern day Idaho broke and drained the massive Lake Missoula.  Over the centuries this glacial dam would break over and over again releasing damaging floods that carved the landscape of Washington’s scablands.  From the parking lot there is an incredible view of the Dry Falls:

The area is so dry now that it is hard to believe that so much water at one time was crashing over these cliffs.  This below artist depiction gives a good idea of how massive this waterfall once was:

Here is a closer look at the ridge of rock that remained in the middle of this waterfall:

This may no longer be a waterfall, but enough earth of was ripped out that even to this day it is able to collect enough spring and rain water to hold small ponds at is base:

Here is the view looking down the wide canyon the mega-flood the carved out.  These large canyons in Eastern Washington are known as “coulees” and this coulee is the largest in the region:

Here is a panorama of the view from the lookout:

Besides taking in the views from the lookout above Dry Falls, there is also a number of informative signs that explains the geologic and natural history of the area as well:

Here are a couple of the final photos we took of Dry Falls before we left the lookout to explore further down the canyon system:

After leaving the Dry Falls lookout we drove further south on Highway 17 that followed the coulee system towards the Sun Lakes area of the state park:

Along the way we could see the different layers of rock exposed in the cliffside from the dozens of mega-floods that ripped through this area carving out this coulee:

The first lake we could see from the highway was Park Lake which was surrounded by campgrounds, RV parks, and boat launches for all the people that come here for recreation:

Out of the various lakes in the coulee, we could see that Park Lake was the one most developed for recreation:

Past Park Lake Highway 17 drives by a handful of more lakes that are part of the Dry Falls-Sun Lakes State Park:

At the very end of this coulee system is the small town of Soap Lake.  This town is known as a vacation destination in Eastern Washington because of the minerals that have accumulated in the waters of Soap Lake.  People from across the region come here to wade in its mineral rich waters.  As my kids and I drove to the beach we noticed this large statue of a Native-American couple that claimed to be the world’s first human figure sun dial:

At the beach, if you can call it that, there were a few people having picnics while other waded in the waters or rubbed mud on themselves.  It wasn’t too busy of an area and looked like a nice place to cool off at on a hot summer day:

Conclusion

The Dry Falls-Sun Lakes State Park is definitely worth taking a drive to explore.  It is is an off the beaten path destination with a geologic history truly unique to the rest of the world.  If visiting during the warmer months a drive through the park can be combined with recreation activities at one of its many lakes.