Places to Visit in Washington State  Soap Lake Resort Attractions
                     PLACES TO VISIT IN 
WASHINGTON STATE | SOAP 
LAKE RESORT ATTRACTIONS
w w w . s o a p l a k e r e s o r t . c o m
AREA ATTRACTIONS
In The Area
Take a ride on the Coulee Corridor Scenic 
Byway, an amazing 150-mile road trip 
revealing the story of the Ice Age floods when 
vast reservoirs of water flooded and receded 
from this valley hundreds of times. One of the 
most unique mineral lake natural landscapes in 
the United States, this area was formed as the 
force of water fought against the strength of 
basalt rock. The result is a geologist’s mecca.
GRAND COULEE DAM – 50 
MILES AWAY
Sometimes called the eighth wonder of the world, Grand 
Coulee Dam is as high as a 46-story building. Constructed 
during the Great Depression, the dam features and excellent 
visitors’ center, showing actual movie footage shot during 
the construction of the dam in the 1930’s. The Dam also 
features a self-guided tour.
BLUE LAKE, RHINOCEROS 
CAVE – 7 MILES AWAY
One of the basalt flows in the Grand Coulee 
yielded an important piece of evidence 
regarding the kind of life existing when the 
Columbia Plateau was much younger. Not 
content to cover logs, trees and minor plants, 
this flow killed a rhinoceros and made a cast of 
the body for the record. The rhino is thought to 
have been covered by highly fluid, rapid-
moving basalt. Before the rhino could find an 
escape it was trapped and destroyed.
STEAMBOAT ROCK – 
45 MILES AWAY
Winding around Banks Lake on the drive to Grand 
Coulee Dam, on the left lies Steamboat Rock, 800 feet 
high and 2 1/2 miles long, standing in the old channel 
(the dry coulee) of the Columbia River. Its layers of 
basalt look like the decks of a huge steamboat. 
Geologists think that thousands of years ago, when the 
river ran through what is now called the Grand Coulee, 
Steamboat Rock stood between two tremendous 
waterfalls, each of them 800 feet high and 2 miles wide. 
There is a State Park at the Rock which offers full 
facilities.
BANKS LAKE – 21 MILES 
AWAY
What do you like to catch? Bass, walleyes, trout, perch, 
crapppies, catfish, burbot, sunfish, carp, lake whitefish? 
Banks Lake winds its way down through the ancient and 
magnificent Grand Coulee, varying from one to two 
miles wide. The Coulee is rimmed with stupendous 
basalt cliffs. You can fish, water ski, bask in the sun, 
bird-watch, eagle-watch, deer-watch, camp, and explore 
all along its forty-mile length. Banks Lake was home to 
the largest large-mouth bass caught in Washington State 
in 1977.
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