Grand Coulee and North Central Washington - Travel Tips

A Travel Path Podcast

www.atravelpath.com

00:00 Introduction

01:23 Sun Lakes Resort

03:40 Steamboat Rocks and Grand Coulee

04:35 When is the best time of year to visit?

05:28 What is the nightlife like?

06:45 How much time should someone spend here?

08:07 How far in advantage should someone make a reservation?

09:37 Rodeo, ice cream, the Palouse Mountains, and Dry Falls

11:00 What are two complaints someone might have?

12:10 What is one thing you can’t leave Grand Coulee without doing?

Luis and Robyn Website and Social:

Bout that RV Life - YouTube

WELCOME (lrvaldezrentals.com)

Luis R Valdez (@boutthatrvlife) • Instagram photos and videos

Log in | TikTok

Boutthatrvlife (@Boutthatrvlife1) / X (twitter.com)

Don’t forget to listen to Part 1 where Luis and Robyn talked about their fascinating RV rental business, and how they went from 1 to 37 RV rentals in just three years! In today’s episode of Travel Tips, we sat down with them to discuss some awesome things to do in their home state of Washington.

🏕️Camping

Sun Lakes Park Resort

Steamboat Rock State Park | Washington State Parks

⛰️Activities

Palouse Washington: Visit Palouse Region of Washington State (stateofwatourism.com)

Sun Lakes-Dry Falls State Park (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)

Washington: Grand Coulee Dam (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)

(The Hoover Dam is taller at 726’ compared to the Grand Coulee Dam, but the Grand Coulee Dam is MUCH wider, at 5,223’ (almost a mile!) compared to the 1,244’ wide Hoover Dam.)

Coulee Playland

Rodeo

#washington #grandcoulee #travel #podcast #sunlakes

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Transcript from YouTube:

all right Lewis and Robin thank you for coming back to the travel path podcast with hope and I thanks for having us back so today is part two we're doing the travel tips segment of the podcast before we jump into that I just want to do a quick recap of part one where you guys talked about your incredible journey from going from an RV that you purchased and couldn't use cuz every campsite was booked up to now managing and renting out 37 RVs over the course of about 3 years which is an incredible story and a great episode to listen to for anyone who wants to get into renting out there V so part two is a travel tips segment what location are we talking about today the grand [ __ ] area for us is been like a beautiful I me every time we drive up there during the summertime it's such a gorgeous gorgeous place and it's you know you could drive for 30 30 45 minutes you know from Soap Lake all the way up to like [ __ ] City and it's just beautiful inside and out and there''s got a ton of cap sites um but I think three are are going to be kind kind of the the main ones that we would probably focus on cuz it's it's they're just beautiful beautiful campsites well known and um yeah it's hard to get a spot there yeah so what are the three locations we're talking about and this is in central Washington right correct yeah yeah yeah Central but you start going up north a little Cal North Central so sunlakes sunlakes Resort is one of the main ones that we've been camp we we've camped there a couple of times and it's it's a beautiful place they've got a nice little water area they've got a nice little um kind of along that pathway there there's another water area that's got some real shallow ground so the kids can like your little kids can just go and literally float in the water sit in the water and it's really really cool and then the campground alone has got it's got a nice big area where you can play like volleyball or beach volleyball the campsites are are really um I felt I feel like they're wellmaintained and that there's plenty of space in between and they're pretty accommodating too so so like if you wanted to have a group you know they're pretty cool about you know parking parking one C certain ways a great place to camp in group yeah camping groups for sure and then they've got some cabins I want to say like 20 cabins that are all lined out up front kind of Waterfront area I think those are extra but as far as the campsites they've got some big big rig camping areas small rig and they've got kind of everything in between but it's it's a gorgeous Place nice and hot they've got a nice little little shop they've got some ice cream they've got this little um like deli restaurant type little area whenever I deliver up in that area even if I'm not delivering two Sun Lakes I stop at Sun Lakes to get an ice cream con perfect it's like a reward absolutely and you guys have delivered to all of these campgrounds I assume multiple times yeah yeah and in case you missed part one they deliver their RV so their RV rental business they deliver there so it sounds like it's a pretty big Campground for RV campers they do have cabins there but if you don't have an RV give them a call they'll deliver yeah yeah absolutely yeah yeah Steamboat rocks another one it's it's it's just another gorgeous well put together they're they're a little bit more strict they've got a lot of volunteers that are that are you know maybe some Kevin and some carens but for the most part they are U very clean um really nice and it's it's right up along the water too so if you've got a boat you can take there um it's a great place for paddle boarding y yeah we ran out paddle boards too hiking hiking stuff like that are you going to these campgrounds for the campground itself or are there any big attractions and draws to the area so Steamboat rock is near a town called Gran culi which is named after a dam and at the dam there's lots of interesting things to do they do a laser light show in the evening on the face of the dam um I Heard recently actually that it's the largest dam in the United States and it just doesn't get a lot of recognition because they wanted Hoover Dam to be where people go instead it might be aivee but that's what I heard it's massive but it is huge yeah something cool to go check out absolutely yeah but outside of that really it's a all of this area is pretty secluded and so you're going there to Camp you're going there to hike you're going there to fish um you might be hunting but mostly it's enjoying nature and being on the water yeah lots of reunions happen there it's it's pretty cool yeah nice now what would you say the best time of the year is to go visit if you like a lot of people I mean right in the thick of July right July and August are two of the biggest months if you don't like a lot of people it's less busy like end of yeah end of August September pushing like into October I think they they stay open like mid October or something like that and then yeah like she said April april-ish yeah but the best weather happens right in the middle of summer it's hot you can hang out on the water it makes it more comfortable it's enjoyable nice now obviously you said great place for family reunions so it's tons of stuff to do for kids between the paddle boarding the swimming of course camping everybody's bringing their dogs so you always have that option I'm sure lots of hiking for them there as far as maybe for more adults what is there to do like at night are there any local bars or places to go hang out listen to music or are you really just there to like have a campfire and go camping you're really there to have a campfire and Camp you're going to bring your own alcohol you're gonna bring your own food and hang out around a fire and it really is a good time it's been really fun um to be in those areas and the people are all generally pretty friendly if you're a person that goes camping I think that's how campgrounds are in general that you have good opportunities to meet new people and um explore the camp ground that way but yeah this is not a a destination for a social life or night life or any of that it's definitely something you're doing with your family with your kids with dogs if you're at Steamboat most Ser you don't have service there right there's not even there's not even self service we have AT&T and we have self service but just barely yeah that's good to know but I mean that's kind of the reason why you go camping right bit and just enjoy nature which it sounds like these would all be perfect campgrounds to do so do you find a lot of people go and like hop around from campground to Campground are they just going to one and spending a lot of time there and how much time would you recommend somebody allocates to this area um I would say like sunlakes so there's sunlakes Park and then there's sunlakes Resort so those would be the only one I could think of where people would go back and forth because there's you know they're they're kind of somewhat connected but you got to drive to one area it's so far out so like up in [ __ ] City if you were to kind of go on Google Maps and really kind of take a look at it it's just mountains and you know driveway roads and stuff like that and you go Steamboat and it's like almost a good five minutes just to get into their actual Park so and the closest grocery store to that is probably 30 minutes away right so it's pretty secluded cludy Playland which is just a little bit up north um it's a really well-known it's been around for a long time but that's a little bit closer to town but still somewhat secluded and then same thing with um sunlakes it's it's again it's it's along the pathway there but it's it's kind of out in the middle of nowhere and it's just got those two places next to now I will say though they do have a a golf course um I think it's a three par course though and they've got a lot of um we play land no no no um sunlakes yeah rub it's a real Golf Course oh it is a real Golf Course okay yeah so that if somebody wanted to go golfing that would be a great place to go very good now what about as far as I know you said some of these are really popular so if someone's like listening to this podcast and they're thinking okay I'm definitely going to contact you guys I'm going to rent an RV I'm going to get a spot one of these how far in advance they need to plan a good six months a lot of them start um open reservations nine months in advance and so if you haven't started booking your reservations around that time you're probably not going to get a spot for this year um it's really challenging the the camping Market in Washington state is just there's a lot of demand cuz it's beautiful that's why good fishing too really good fishing there's a reason for it right yeah yeah yeah I remember from Washington our drive-thru it was just it was green it was Forest it was beautiful out there yeah yeah yeah well where we're at we're in the desert so it's brown but it's still beautiful I promise Washington state is cool like that that you have you have the rainforest on the West Side you have the desert on the east side and there's Hills and valleys and mountains and trees and Sage Brush Galore so you can find pretty much anything here we've camped at the the ho um rainforest on the other side of the mountains and that's that was pretty cool yeah yeah well sounds like you could just do a whole tour of camping in Washington you guys probably have for it yeah much good all right we'll pivot into the three 2 one countdown segment of the podcast so what are three things to do around this Grand cooie area that we haven't talked about yet there is a cute little rodeo that happens up it's probably a 45 minute drive or so from this area but it's in a place called twisp wind R twisp we didn't talk about the ice cream did we did we talk about the ice cream yes we did we can talk about the ice cream we can always talk about ice cream dang it get ice cream is there a specific spot is your favorite cuz she wants to know I mean truly it's just regular soft serve ice cream at the what is it called the restaurant I don't know the little place where they serve the ice cream at this is in Sun Lake right yeah yeah Sun Lakes perfect um I would say one thing you made me think about the Palo mountains oh jeez that's not the same area though yeah it is it's so here's Sun Lakes and you drive just about maybe 2 miles up there's a Viewpoint there and there's a there's a like a little half bridge where you can walk like a cliff you walk out Dry Falls Dry Falls that's what it's called but that's that is really cool and it's a touristy area so there's there's parking you know people come in you park and sometimes they have like a little food truck there they've got restrooms so it can be like a little rest stop but it just overlooks and if you Google it it's beautiful just overlooks these these mountains and potholes and just it's awesome it's got a really cool story very nice it's like an Insider tip right there that's perfect yeah yeah and then two complaints or things that people wish they had prepared for before visiting this area it's pretty secluded like we said so not packing enough food not taking enough of whatever they they were hoping to have um what would be another complaint it's gets really yeah windy it get wind it can get windy not it's not windy all the time but it it can't the time we were there we had like 90° weather and then there was one 2hour window where we had torrential downpour and thunderstorms and crazy wind and then it left it was gone it's unpredictable the bugs aren't terrible because of the wind yeah blows them around this is a random question but do you guys have ticks out west yes you do because we have them like crazy up north and we went hiking all over the country when we did our road trip and we never got a single tick and we came home and hiked for 5 minutes and we had one so we weren't sure if they were out there yes they are yes we do we have ticks and and mosquitoes check your kids but they mainly they've jumped on our dog like we've had a dog we found one on but our last question guys what is one thing you simply cannot leave this Grand [ __ ] area without doing ice

cream oh no you got to go on the water you got to go paddle boarding you got to swim that's what we do we p board yeah we we got paddle board and it's fun and you said they have them there most of the time to rent they do have they have them there to rent we rent them we rent them out yeah if we're not using them which we're busy we're not using

them how's the water there is it ice cold like the lake water refreshing in early in the season it's cold but as you go um it it gets better but it is all glacial runoff from a long ways away but yeah we have never been paddle boarding actually so we want to maybe we'll knock all that out the cool area it's fun awesome it's fun heard it's hard than it looks I think it's easier than I never stand up I just I just sit down I sit down the whole time and it really depends on the board if you got a nice sturdy board you're good to go excellent all right guys well thank you guys for coming back on this episode of the podcast and talking to us about the grand [ __ ] area again if you've missed part one tune in uh they tell us all about how they started their RV rental business and it was a very informative episode so guys thanks again for coming on absolutely thanks for having us it's been great it's been fun