Input sought on Dry Falls visitor center

The visitor center at Dry Falls near Coulee City would be expanded or possibly replaced with plans to develop bigger facilities for the site, which is one of Washington's most impressive geologic features along the path of the Ice Age floods.

Washington's State Parks and Recreation Commission wants the public to comment on six alternatives being considered for the design of the new facilities at Dry Falls on Highway 17 near Coulee City in Grant County.

The current small visitor center where passersby can gaze at the 31/2-mile-wide cataract left after Ice Age floods scoured the landscape about 10,000 years ago would be upgraded as an interpretive center.

"We're in a process to identify a site and a building," said Bill Fraser, a regional planner for state parks based in East Wenatchee. Some of the six alternatives being considered use the existing building in some way.

He said they are asking for the public's opinion on whether to keep, remove or incorporate the existing two-story visitor's center and restrooms into the new facilities.

"We will have the various options available next week," Fraser said, noting that he will provide project documents to anyone who contacts him wanting to comment.

The Coulee Corridor National Scenic Byway is joining state parks officials in using $185,000 to develop the design.

The state Department of Transportation and Tourism, Ice Age Floods Institute, National Park Service and the Colville Federated Tribes also are partners in the project.

Information about the project is available online at www.parks.wa. gov/plans/dryfalls. Public comments also may be sent by e-mail to Dry.Falls.Planning@parks.wa.gov, or by calling 509-665-4333.

Fraser said the visitor center site overlooks one of the greatest geological wonders in North America -- a former waterfall that now stands as a dry cliff 400 feet high. The waterfall was four times larger than Niagara Falls during the Ice Age floods deluge.

National Park Service publications refer to the Dry Falls site as one of the top attractions in the Montana, Idaho, Washington and Oregon landscape created by the floods.

"This is an exciting project," Fraser said. "We have contacted 9,000 registered campers from area state parks and have received more than 50 comments. ... We hope to have a facility design that would provide travelers with a quality visitor experience and an opportunity to view a spectacular landscape and learn the significance of the Ice Age floods."

The existing Dry Falls Visitor Center was designed by Richard Brooks, a Washington architect known for modern buildings of the mid-century era. It was built in 1965, and is being considered for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places, Fraser said.

Expanding facilities at Dry Falls comes as Congress considers approving legislation to create a National Ice Age Floods Trail, which would include several visitor centers in four states from Montana to Oregon. The legislation recently passed the Senate and but needs House and Presidential approval.

The Sun Lakes-Dry Falls State Park is a 4,027-acre camping park with 73,640 feet of freshwater shoreline at the foot of Dry Falls. The lake is one of the state's premier fly fishing areas.