Day 464 – US – Washington [Soap Lake to Coulee City]


12/07/21

37km

  From Soap Lake (Washington) to Coulee City (Washington)

North America


A very hot run by the Grand Coulee and the oldest waterfall in the world

By Lake Lenore

A quick word about the weather. It is getting very hot. The next three days are marked as “near-record temperature” in terms of heat (source: US National Weather Service). The next three days are also big days (50km+) of running for me. That means I’ll have to be super careful, leave at dawn and carry loads of water. Isn’t it interesting that I am reading the blog posts of Tom Denniss, who ran around the world in 2012/2013 (http://www.tomsnextstep.com/blog/). At that time of year, 9 years ago, Tom was crossing the US too. Temperatures were record breaking everywhere back then and he went through a mighty heat wave. Nine years apart, we are both experiencing historical record breaking temperatures…

By the Grand Coulee Gorges

Today’s landscapes were stunning. Running by the lakes along the Grand Coulee. It felt like running across the desert with little oases springing up left and right every few kilometers. There was no place to take cover from the sun though. Every time I had a break, I had to sit in the shade of BoB to allow for my body temperature to cool down a bit.

Dry Falls Washington

Two thirds into the run, I encountered the “Dry Falls”. These were the world’s largest waterfalls at the time of the last glaciation period (would that be 15,000 years ago?). All that remains is 3.5 miles precipice. Quite impressive, I don’t think my photos do it any justice, for it felt much deeper and wider than what I see on pictures. It won’t be the first time I feel cheated by my pictures!

Coulee City Dam

The next thing I saw as I approached Coulee City was the dam. The “Franklin Delano Roosevelt lake” is named after the US President who oversaw the construction of the dam. The largest power station in the US, it’s quite an impressive sight – and must give jobs to a fair amount of people. I have been struck that the region I am crossing is rather poor (yesterday’s Soap Lake statistics reveal 1/3rd of the population lives below the poverty line..).

Check out today’s flyover video: https://www.relive.cc/view/vMq57Z2MWQO



Check my daily run GPS data on or

Here is the map of today’s run: