Mohave Valley

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Mohave Valley
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Mohave Valley, looking east from California with the Black Mountains of Arizona in the distance
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Mohave Valley
Location of Mohave Valley
Length25 mi (40 km)
Width10 mi (16 km)
Geography
Location Arizona/Nevada/California
Lower Colorado River Valley
(southeast)- Mojave Desert
((northwest)- Sonoran Desert )
Borders on Colorado River-W
Black Mesa (western Arizona)-E
Black Mountains (Arizona)-NE
Mohave Mountains-S
Newberry Mountains (Nevada)-NW
Dead Mountains-W & NW
Sacramento Mountains (California)-SW
Coordinates 34°57′25″N114°35′5″W / 34.95694°N 114.58472°W / 34.95694; -114.58472 Coordinates: 34°57′25″N114°35′5″W / 34.95694°N 114.58472°W / 34.95694; -114.58472

The Mohave Valley is a valley located mostly on the east shore of the south-flowing Colorado River in northwest Arizona. The valley extends into California's San Bernardino County; the northern side of the valley extends into extreme southeast Clark County, Nevada. The main part of the valley lies in southwest Mohave County, Arizona and is at the intersection of the southeast Mojave and northwest Sonoran deserts.

Contents

The valley extends into the three states of California, Arizona and Nevada, and the Fort Mojave Indian Reservation extends into them as well. On the west, the valley borders the Dead Mountains of California which overlook the tri-state intersection point.

Needles on Interstate 40 lies on the southwest margin of the valley overlooking the Havasu National Wildlife Refuge and Topock Marsh. The village of Topock is located at the south end of the valley where the Chemehuevi Mountains of California restrict the Colorado to the narrow Mohave Canyon. [1]

Mohave Valley

Mohave Valley is a 25-mile (40 km) long, north-south trending valley and up to 10 miles (16 km) wide at some areas. Mohave Valley, Arizona, in the center of the reservation, is at the center point of the valley. Bullhead City is at the northern perimeter of the valley; Needles is on the southwest border of the valley in California. Downstream, and southeast, near the southern valley perimeter is the Topock Marsh in Arizona, and also on the southern perimeter, Interstate 40 in Arizona as it ascends uphill out of the Sacramento Wash, and eventually enters the entire north-south Sacramento Valley which lies on the east, southeast, and partial south of the Black Mountains.

Mohave Valley, Arizona, town center of the reservation, is located at 34°57′25″N114°35′5″W / 34.95694°N 114.58472°W / 34.95694; -114.58472 ; the town center is at the valleys center, and slightly west, closer to the Colorado River, the valley's west perimeter in many parts. The Boundary Cone landmark, lies east, at the northwest perimeter of the Black Mesa (western Arizona), a subsection mountain region at the southern end of the Black Mountains.

Water and watersheds

Arizona, southeast & east-(Sacramento Wash & Valley)

The southern end of the valley begins elevated regions, with the Mohave Mountains directly south, and Dutch Flat, east of the Mohave Mountains, which drains northwest into Sacramento Wash. The southeast of the valley meets the outfall of Sacramento Wash, and associated drainage plains; Sacramento Valley itself is mostly east and south of the Black Mesa section at the south of the Black Mountains (Arizona); the Sacramento Wash turns due west, and follows Interstate 40 in Arizona as it turns west and parallels the wash to meet Needles at the Colorado River; it is also the southern drainage outfall point into the Topock Marsh, at Topock, eastern shore of the Colorado River, in the southeast valley. Other washes drain through the eastern Mohave Valley plains and foothills into the Topock Marsh from the southwest of the Black Mountains, the extensive range which goes north 75 miles (121 km) to Lake Mead.

Nevada, Piute Wash & Valley-(northwest)

While in Arizona the Sacramento Wash drains the Sacramento Valley southwest of Kingman, in Nevada the Piute Wash drains the Piute Valley of southeast Nevada. A separate drainage lies between them on the Colorado River, the Havasu-Mohave Lakes Drainage. [2] These three drainages, the west, center, and east all drain into the Mohave Valley region.

See also

Related Research Articles

Topock, Arizona Unincorporated community in Arizona, United States

Topock ( ) is a small unincorporated community in Mohave County, Arizona, United States. Topock has a ZIP Code of 86436; in 2010, the population of the 86436 ZCTA was 2,104.

New York Mountains Landform in San Bernardino County, California

The New York Mountains are a small mountain range found in northeastern San Bernardino County in California, USA. The range's northeastern area lies in southeastern Nevada. The range lies just south of the small community of Ivanpah, and north of the Lanfair Valley. The mountains are part of the mountain ranges, cones, mountains, and landforms in the Mojave National Preserve. The mountains reach an elevation of 7,533 feet (2,296 m), and run in a mostly southwest-northeasterly direction between the Providence Mountains and the McCullough Range approximately five miles into Nevada and border the northwest corner of the Piute Valley of Nevada-California.

Sacramento Mountains (California)

The Sacramento Mountains are a mountain range in the Eastern Mojave Desert and within Mojave Trails National Monument, in San Bernardino County, California.

Piute Range Landform in the Mojave Desert, California

The Piute Range is located in the Mojave Desert, primarily in northeast San Bernardino County, California, United States, with a north portion in Nevada. Most of the range is the eastern border of the Mojave National Preserve, a National Park Service natural area and park.

Lanfair Valley

Lanfair Valley is located in the Mojave Desert in southeastern California near the Nevada state line. It is bounded on the north by the New York Mountains and Castle Mountains, on the east by the Piute Range, and on the south by the Woods Mountains and Vontrigger Hills. Joshua Trees can be found in most of the valley. Elevation is 4,045 feet.

Warm Springs Wilderness Protected area in Mohave County, Arizona

The 112,400-acre (45,500 ha) Warm Springs Wilderness makes up the entirety of the Black Mesa and parts of the surrounding foothills, washes, alluvial fans, and valleys. The Black Mesa is the southernmost section of the Black Mountains of western Mohave County, in northwest Arizona. The region is in the east and southeast of the Mojave Desert of Arizona, southern Nevada, and California.

The Sacramento Valley of northwestern Arizona is a north–south trending valley west and southwest of Kingman in Mohave County. The valley lies just east of the southern section of the Black Mountains. Interstate 40 in Arizona traverses the valley north–south.

Black Mountains (Arizona) Landform in Mohave County, Arizona

The Black Mountains of northwest Arizona are an extensive, mostly linear, north-south trending 75 miles (121 km) long mountain range. It forms the north-south border of southwest Mohave County as it borders the eastern shore of the south-flowing Colorado River from Hoover Dam.

Tyson Wash Dry wash in southwest Arizona

Tyson Wash is one of the larger eastern-bank dry washes that enter the Colorado River in western Arizona. It drains the La Posa Plain south-to-north and is also coincident with the Plain,.

Sacramento Wash Waterbody in Mohave County, Arizona

The Sacramento Wash is a major drainage of northwest Arizona in Mohave County. The wash is east of the Black Canyon of the Colorado and drains into the south-flowing Colorado River 45 mi south of Lake Mohave, and 90 mi south of Hoover Dam at Lake Mead. The wash outfall is in the center-south of the Havasu-Mohave Lakes Watershed. An equivalent wash drains to the west of the Colorado River and the Black Canyon, draining southeast Nevada and a small part of California, the Piute Wash of the Piute Valley. The Piute Wash outfall is upstream of the Sacramento's outfall by about 15 miles.

Butler Valley is a valley of the Maria fold and thrust belt in western Arizona, USA. It lies east of the Colorado River, and is south of the west-flowing Bill Williams River.

Eldorado Valley

Eldorado Valley, or El Dorado Valley, is a Great Basin valley in the Mojave Desert southeast of Las Vegas and southwest of Boulder City, Nevada. The valley is endorheic, containing the Eldorado Dry Lake. The Great Basin Divide, transects ridgelines and saddles, on the north, northeast, east, and south around the valley, as the valley sits on the east of the McCullough Range, a Great Basin massif, on the Great Basin Divide at its north terminus and its south terminus.

Piute Wash

The Piute Wash of extreme southeastern Nevada and northeast San Bernardino County California is the south-flowing drainage of the Piute Valley. The wash and valley are located northwest of Needles, California.

Piute Valley

The Piute Valley is a 45-mile-long (72 km) north–south valley southeast of Las Vegas, Nevada, and northwest of Needles. The north of the valley is at Searchlight, with some of the valley extending northwest from Searchlight. At the center-north lies Cal-Nev-Ari, Nevada.

Mohave Mountains Landform in Mohave County, Arizona

The Mohave Mountains are a small 18-mi (29 km) long mountain range of northwest Arizona. The range is a northwest trending range in southwest Mohave County that parallels a southeast-flowing stretch of the Colorado River, the Arizona-California border. The range also forms the southwest border of a flatland region to its east and north, namely, Dutch Flat which lies east, at the south end of Sacramento Valley. Lake Havasu City, AZ on the Colorado, lays opposite the southwest flank of the range, where the London Bridge was reconstructed at Lake Havasu.

Dutch Flat of Arizona is a valley south of the Sacramento Valley and Interstate 40 in southern Mohave County.

Chemehuevi Wash River in the United States of America

The Chemehuevi Wash is a large wash of northeast San Bernardino County in the southeast Mojave Desert. The wash enters the center-west bank of Lake Havasu on the California–Arizona border. Chemehuevi Wash drains the center of the Chemehuevi Valley and the regional landforms of washes, valleys and mountains is adjacent the northeast region of the Colorado Desert, the entire region south on the west side of the south-flowing Colorado River.

Course of the Colorado River Route and confluences of the Colorado River in the United States and Mexico

The Colorado River is a major river of the western United States and northwest Mexico in North America. Its headwaters are in the Rocky Mountains where La Poudre Pass Lake is its source. Located in north central Colorado it flows southwest through the Colorado Plateau country of western Colorado, southeastern Utah and northwestern Arizona where it flows through the Grand Canyon. It turns south near Las Vegas, Nevada, forming the Arizona–Nevada border in Lake Mead and the Arizona–California border a few miles below Davis Dam between Laughlin, Nevada and Needles, California before entering Mexico in the Colorado Desert. Most of its waters are diverted into the Imperial Valley of Southern California. In Mexico its course forms the boundary between Sonora and Baja California before entering the Gulf of California. This article describes most of the major features along the river.

The Peacock Mountains are a small, 26 mi (42 km) long mountain range in northwest Arizona, US. The range is a narrow sub-range, and an extension north, at the northeast of the Hualapai Mountains massif, which lies to the southwest. The range is defined by the Hualapai Valley to the northwest, and north and south-flowing washes on its east border, associated with faults and cliffs; the Cottonwood Cliffs are due east, and are connected to the Aquarius Cliffs southward at the west perimeter of the Aquarius Mountains; the cliffs are a result of the Aquarius Fault, which is an extension southward from the Grand Wash Cliffs and Grand Wash Fault which crosses the Colorado River at Lake Mead, and the west perimeter of the Grand Canyon/Colorado Plateau.

The Sacramento Wash (California) is the drainage southward, then east from the Lanfair Valley of extreme eastern San Bernardino County, California. The drainage combines with the Piute Wash-(mostly of Nevada) at the south terminus of the Dead Mountains, and immediately enters the Colorado River, just north of Needles, California. Another Sacramento Wash occurs across the Colorado, as an eastern drainage from northwest Arizona, also at Needles, CA.

References

  1. Arizona Atlas & Gazetteer, DeLorme, 4th ed., 2001, p.36 ISBN   0899333257
  2. "EPA, Havasu-Mohave Lakes Drainage". Cfpub.epa.gov. 2006-06-28. Retrieved 2012-01-06.

Mohave Valley


Watersheds