West of Phoenix, it turns abruptly southward along the Gila Bend Mountains, then abruptly westward again near the town of Gila Bend, Arizona. It flows southwestward and joins the Colorado near Yuma, Arizona.
The Gila is one of the largest desert rivers in the world. It and its chief tributary, the Salt River would both be perennial streams carrying large volumes of water, but irrigation and municipal water diversions turn both into largely dry rivers.
Below Phoenix to the Colorado River, the Gila is largely a trickle or dry, as is the lower Salt from Granite Reef Diversion Dam downstream to the Gila. The Gila used to be navigable by small craft from its mouth to near the Arizona - New Mexico border. The width varied from 150 - 1200 feet with a depth from 2 - 40 feet.
The Gila is one of the largest desert rivers in the world. It and its chief tributary, the Salt River would both be perennial streams carrying large volumes of water, but irrigation and municipal water diversions turn both into largely dry rivers.
Below Phoenix to the Colorado River, the Gila is largely a trickle or dry, as is the lower Salt from Granite Reef Diversion Dam downstream to the Gila. The Gila used to be navigable by small craft from its mouth to near the Arizona - New Mexico border. The width varied from 150 - 1200 feet with a depth from 2 - 40 feet.
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The Gila River, a tributary of the Colorado River, 649 mile long, rises in western New Mexico, in Sierra County on the western slope of continental divide in the Black Range and flows southwest to the Gila National Forest and Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument, then westward into Arizona, past the city of Safford, and along the southern slope of the Gila Mountains.
It emerges from the mountains into the valley southeast of Phoenix, where it crosses the Gila River Indian Reservation as an intermittent stream, due to its use as a water source.
It emerges from the mountains into the valley southeast of Phoenix, where it crosses the Gila River Indian Reservation as an intermittent stream, due to its use as a water source.
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