Dry Falls State Park
34875 Park Lake Rd NE
Coulee City, WA
An unlikely desert oasis of blue lakes and reeds pooled at the foot of the largest waterfall the world has ever known.
Sun Lakes-Dry Falls State Park is the green half of one of Washington's strangest landscapes. Directly below the vast dry cliff of Dry Falls, a chain of lakes fills the deep basins that the Ice Age floods once hammered out, now fed by springs and rimmed with reeds. In the middle of the eastern Washington desert, it is a genuine oasis.
The park turns that geology into a place to actually spend time: swimming, boating, fishing, camping, and walking among the coulee's black cliffs and blue water. Above it all looms the silent, mile-wide wall where the greatest waterfall on record once thundered.
What Guests Love
- Swimming and paddling on warm desert lakes ringed by dark basalt cliffs
- Camping under big, star-filled skies far from any city glow
- The eerie contrast of green water and reeds against the dry flood-scoured rock
- Easy trails out to Umatilla Rock and the quieter, deeper lakes at the far end
Worth Knowing
- This is high desert, so summer days get hot and shade is scarce; the water is the relief
- A Washington Discover Pass is required, and popular summer campsites book up well ahead
- Rattlesnakes live in the rocks here, so watch where you put hands and feet on the trails
- Some of the recreation, including boat rentals and the golf course, runs on a seasonal concession, so check ahead in the shoulder seasons
Details
Coulee City, WA
Learn about Dry Falls State Park
Lakes in a waterfall's footprint
The lakes here are not ordinary lakes. They sit in the plunge pools of Dry Falls, the deep hollows that a colossal Ice Age waterfall dug into the basalt before the floods stopped and the falls went dry. When the water quit flowing, groundwater and springs filled the pools, and the desert kept them.
Park Lake and Deep Lake are the main waters, with smaller lakes scattered through the basin. Because they are spring-fed and set among heat-holding black rock, they warm up nicely in summer, which is why a lush recreation area could grow in the middle of the scablands.
Out on the water and the trails
In the warm months the park is all about the lakes: swimming beaches, boat launches and rentals, and fishing for trout and other species. Campgrounds spread among the lakes, and there is even a small golf course tucked into the coulee floor.
On foot, short trails lead out to Umatilla Rock, a jagged basalt fin left standing by the floods, and down toward Deep Lake at the quieter southern end of the park, where the cliffs press in and the crowds thin out.
The flood country
Everything about the park is shaped by the same Ice Age floods that carved Dry Falls. Around fifteen thousand years ago, repeated failures of an ice dam in Montana sent immense floods racing across eastern Washington, scouring the Grand Coulee and this basin down to bare rock.
The Native peoples of the Columbia Plateau knew this country long before it was a park, traveling and camping in the coulees and using rock shelters like the nearby Lake Lenore Caves. Their long presence is part of the story of a landscape that looks empty but never was.
Wildlife and seasons
The mix of water and desert makes for good wildlife watching. Waterfowl and shorebirds work the lakes, cliff swallows and swifts nest in the basalt, and raptors ride the thermals above. Marmots whistle from the rocks, and mule deer and coyotes move through the sage.
Summer is the busy season, hot and bright, when the lakes draw swimmers and campers. Spring brings brief desert green and wildflowers, fall is mild and gold, and winter is cold and quiet, when much of the seasonal recreation shuts down and the coulee empties out.
Closest Boutels
The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.
Things to Do Near Coulee City
Dry Falls Overlook
Just above the park
The cliff-edge viewpoint and interpretive center over the mile-wide dry waterfall, the geologic centerpiece of the whole area.
Lake Lenore Caves
About 6 miles south
Flood-carved rock shelters in the coulee wall, once used by Native people, reached by a short trail and scramble.
Steamboat Rock State Park
About 30 miles north
A massive flat-topped basalt butte rising from Banks Lake in the Grand Coulee, with a steep summit hike and a big lakeside campground.