Slide Ridge Flash Flood - July 2, 2019Shortly after 3 PM on July 2, 2019, a torrential rainstorm hit the Lake Chelan Valley.And as is almost always the case, the South Lakeshore Road between the Cove Marina and the Yacht Club gets covered with mud and rocky debris that covers the road and forces traffic to use a single lane, dirt by-pass.  Chelan County Road Crews employed an innovative solution to getting the road open to one way traffic (using the emergency by-pass that has been in place now for a long time).  Employing portable traffic control lights at each end, [...]

Impressive 7,000 CFS Spilling Through Chelan Dam 5-24-18 It was mesmerizing to say the least. The roar of the water was loud -- loud enough it could be heard some distance away. And yet 7,000 CFS is well within the sale rates of spill for the Chelan Gorge. (Last year, we filmed a spill at over 9,000 CFS which did put some pressure on the river height in places). But as you see, when we flew down the river a ways, all was just fine.

Chelan PUD Spilling Over Chelan Dam (5-18-2018) May 18, 2018 It was not a case of if, but when, the Chelan County PUD would be forced to spill water over the Chelan Dam as Spring Run-Off is filling Lake Chelan rapidly. (Five feet in the last 10 days (1090' ASL  to 1095' ASL)  - see chart below ). Today's spill of just over 6,000 Cubic Feet Per Second is only 1/3 of the spill rate we saw a year ago when similar early and fast run-off created a similar situation.  The 3 charts below from the Chelan PUD Web Site [...]

Lakeside Park - Love The Great Sandy Beaches Lakeside Park is always extremely popular in the summer. It's that great shallow sandy beach surrounding the park that makes it a swimming favorite. This April 25th, 2018  flight over the park really shows just how shallow and sandy the beach-front really is when the lake is full at 1100 feet above sea level. Lake level on this date was 1087.75 , or just over 12 feet below full elevation. Information about Lake Chelan lake level is always available here

Spot The Changes Since 2016 It was May of 2016, a nice calm windless early early afternoon, the grass was turning green, the water blue and we made this gentle pass along the South Shore between Lakeside and Slidewaters  just to capture the moment.  As we expected then, "there was change coming" , and some of it has happened already. See if you can spot the changes.

The Beauty of Winter To float over the valley in the winter months is to see an aspect of the area that is often not known. This simple flight over the foot of the lake and the City of Chelan, shows off the perspective of our distinct changing seasons. The winter of 2017-18 saw more a good deal of snow fall in the valley. It started early (close to Halloween)  and the last snowfall at lake kevel was in April. There's a lot of moisture in the snow-pack in the mountains surrounding Lake Chelan. The summer of 2018 will [...]

Riverwalk Park ~ A Gift To The Valley In 2016 we put together this video, which includes stills from the official Riverwalk Park dedication in ceremonies in 1986 and includes an aerial flight over the beautiful addition to the community. Enjoy the adventure.