The Gila River Valley is a multi-sectioned valley of the Gila River, mostly in Arizona. The Gila River forms in western New Mexico and flows west across southern-eastern, south-central, and southwestern Arizona; it changes directions across the state, and defines specific areas and valleys. The central portion of the river flows on the southern Phoenix valley region-(where Phoenix, in the Salt River Valley joins the Gila River Valley), and the final sections in southwestern Arizona form agricultural, irrigated smaller valleys within the Gila River valley, (for example Dome Valley, Mohawk Valley, and Hyder Valley).
Two mountain ranges are named for the Gila River: the Gila Mountains (Graham County) bordering the Gila River valley, northeast of Safford; the Gila Mountains (Yuma County) border the Gila River valley before the Gila River joins its confluence with the Colorado River; that range is east of Yuma and the Fortuna Foothills.
Famous quotes containing the words river and/or valley:
“At sundown, leaving the river road awhile for shortness, we went by way of Enfield, where we stopped for the night. This, like most of the localities bearing names on this road, was a place to name which, in the midst of the unnamed and unincorporated wilderness, was to make a distinction without a difference, it seemed to me.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I will frankly declare, that after passing a few weeks in this valley of the Marquesas, I formed a higher estimate of human nature than I had ever before entertained. But alas! since then I have been one of the crew of a man-of-war, and the pent-up wickedness of five hundred men has nearly overturned all my previous theories.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)