Camping at Grand Coulee Dam Airport
Kelly and I love camping, so it was just a matter of time before we went on an airplane camping trip. Seeing the campers at Orcas Island a few weeks before wet our appetite, so we decided we needed to go sooner rather than later. We’d also been looking for an excuse to go over the Cascade Mountains, and having seen this thread on the PNW flying forum, we decided on the Grand Coulee Dam Airport in eastern Washington.
Having a party to go to on Saturday and waiting for the weather to improve, we almost waited too long to leave. Thanks to Kelly for getting us packed up and ready to go so quickly. If you draw a straight line from Paine Field to our destination, we’d go more-or-less over Stevens pass, but given it was our first trip over the mountains, we wanted to take the much more forgiving flight over Snoqualmie Pass (where I-90 runs), which has airports pretty much every 15 miles along the route. Going that far out of the way probably added only 15-20 minutes to the flight, so no big deal. We went over at 7500 feet, so this was flying over the mountains, not actual mountain flying.
Here we are approaching the pass, with Mt. Rainier in the background. There were scattered clouds from just west of Paine Field all the way up into the pass.
Just after the pass, it was completely clear. These windmills are between Cle Elum and Ellensburg.
More eastern Washington terrain.
Approaching our destination.
Final approach.
Kelly took this picture just after shutting down the engine. As you can see, we arrived right at sunset.
We set our tent up not far from the airplane. We were surprised to be the only ones here, given it was a nice summer weekend.
The airport facilities are fantastic. There are nice bathrooms and an air conditioned pilot lounge (which has a fridge, microwave, coffee maker, computer, and WiFi). The runway and ramp are in great shape, too.
The next day we took the courtesy car on the 5-10 minute drive to the Grand Coulee Dam.
Here we are in the park at the base of the dam, after having a quick lunch.
When we were done at the dam, we headed back to the airport. We worked up a sweat packing up and untying the airplane, so the air conditioned pilot lounge was very welcome. Sufficiently cooled down, we jumped in the plane and took off. Departure and climb out was very hot and bumpy, so we did a quick climb to the smooth, cool air at 8500′.
Flying home, there were once again scattered clouds on the west side of the pass. Here you can see I-90 and the Snoqualmie ski area at the top of the pass. We’re at 8500′.
The nice thing about two people traveling in an RV-10 is that we can take a ton of stuff.
It was a great trip of firsts for us and our RV-10: first time over the mountains, first overnight trip, and first camping trip. All the pictures are here.
