Index, WA

Index is one of my favorite places in WA.  The town is maybe 1 mile off of Route 2 between Gold Bar and Skykomish, snuggled up to the North Fork Skykomish river.  I first visited because of the interesting name, quickly to find that the town is named after the towering peak just south of the town & Route 2.  Mt. Index is really impressive because it is so steep, so there aren't many trees along it's steep, solid, rocky slopes.  I spoke to a few people who mentioned the frequent winter sound of small avalanches crumbling down the mountainside.  Apparently the steep slopes don't allow enough snow to accumulate into dangerous avalanches.

The town itself is mainly a bridge from the access road (which used to go to mining encampments Mineral, WA and Galena, WA, but is now washed out by the river) and a smattering of old homes and a few businesses: a small post office-convenience store, a fire station, tiny elementary school, town museum, and outdoors shop with summer and winter rentals, a restaurant and cafe.  There is a very old, dilapidated hotel along the sheer rock wall to the west of the town which was condemned after the most recent minor earthquake the region experienced.  A local dude said the owners are planning to rebuild it like the original, including a restaurant on the first floor which was quite popular right up until the earthquake.

The 'Bush House' Inn.  Town Wall in the background.

There is a large swath of state-owned land to the southwest and northeast of town, which will eventually become a state park.  "Forks of the Sky State Park" is the name...and if you were thinking there are only mountains and trees in the sky around here--no forks, you are not alone.  I was perplexed about what local feature looked like forks poking into the sky, until a very friendly local dude named Scott politely informed me the Skykomish river is locally referred to as 'Sky' and the North and South Forks branch off just down-river from Index.  Now the name makes sense!

As for the town of Index, it seems mostly local people hang out in the area, which explains why it isn't overrun with touristy visitors, trash, commercial development and developed trails.  The Index Town Wall is a rock face rising up above the town and is apparently well-known to regional climbers.  Under the wall and through town, the Skykomish river is fairly narrow and fast-flowing.  Upriver, north of Index the North Fork Sky spreads out into a wide, shallow, bubbly, bouldery horizontal cascade of water.  During dry times the banks are wide with rocks, boulders and gravel sized stones, but in wet times the river consumes the banks and trees float down the river.  I found a perfect place along the river which is definitely in my top 5 places to be in Washington, maybe on the earth!  The access to the river, along with the sound, smell and solitude provide a sense of contemplative energy which invigorates my mind and body.

The Grand Coulee Dam: worth the trip to Central Washington, trust me.

IT IS THE BIGGEST POWER PLANT IN THE USA!

The Grand Coulee Dam is worth going out of your way to visit just like the Empire State Building, Fenway Park, Golden Gate Bridge, Washington Monument, etc.  It has a museum that makes boring things like hydropower and dam-building interesting, there are bald eagles feasting on the fish at the bottom of the spillway almost all year round, a laser-light show at night for people who like laser-light shows, and it is relatively in the middle of nowhere so you have to take a fun road-trip to get there.  They have tours that take you across the top of the dam, but it is just as impressive from across town as it is from on top.  The Grand Coulee Dam is just huge and historic.

Even if you really don't like dams, you can still enjoy a visit to the Grand Coulee Dam because nearby attractions include Banks Lake (filling up the upper Grand Coulee), Roosevelt Lake (the lake behind the Grand Coulee Dam), Colville Indian reservation (Chief Joseph's grave isn't too far away in Nespelem) and the Columbia River (which flows downstream from the dam for a while before it is impounded by Chief Joseph dam, which is not worth visiting).  All these lakes have ample rural outdoorsy opportunities like fishing, boating, hiking, hunting, etc.

In this photo, the spillway gates are being opened.

I believe the Grand Coulee Dam to be a great example of smart government working with and for the people.  The Dam provides power to the entire region, without using carbon fuels.  The dam enables a thriving agricultural district South of the dam.  The irrigated area is very productive despite the natural shrub-steppe desert ecosystem.  The dam regulates water melting down from the snowpack of the Canadian Rockies and all of the upper Columbia River which has contributed to fewer destructive flooding incidents on the Columbia River.  Most importantly to me, the dam was a monumental project that was larger than anything that existed at the time.  The construction of it put thousands of people to work during a time of economic hardship in the 1930s.  The project continues to provide economic value to the surrounding area by way of tourism, recreation, scientific & engineering research, agriculture, wages, and water...showing how successful a well planned government super-project can be.

Summer Falls

Waterfalls aren't exactly common in the desert of central washington, so anyplace you can find the sound of cascading water is special.  Finding Summer Falls may be tricky, but the surrounding country roads that cut through coulees and follow abandoned railroad routes are very picturesque, so I would plan to get a little lost and enjoy it. The park is like an oasis at the end of a rocky, dusty driveway: a well-irrigated grassy park with trees, picnic tables, restrooms and a pavilion, all nestled up against Billy Clap Lake and the waterfall.

Note: the only water recreation here is fishing: there is no beach and people have been seriously injured from falling on the slippery rocks of the falls.  The falls are, however, very accessible if you have two legs and don't mind the "KEEP OUT" signs.  If you are looking for desert hikes, there are plenty nearby (including Sun Lakes/Dry Falls state park), but not at Summer Falls.  This park is a pretty sedentary place unless you are throwing frisbee or football in the grassy park.

These falls and the depth of Billy Clap Lake they flow into were created when an irrigation canal was built to bring water from Banks Lake (itself a product of water diverted from the Grand Coulee Dam) to what was then dry, rocky, sagebrushy non-farmland further south.  There is also a tiny, discrete power plant just up the canal from the falls.  So the lake is a coulee that is full of water, and the water coming down the falls is what is leftover from the canal after the power plant takes it's share.  It sounds pretty industrial, but it's not: the irrigation and power generating functions of the water are invisible at Summer Falls.  Summer Falls is a good place--maybe the only place--to enjoy the relaxing sound of a waterfall amidst the area's desert landscape.