River
Gila River
1,044 km from source to mouth · United States.
United StatesFlows into Colorado River
In numbers
Length
1,044km
Average flow
170m³/s
Basin
150,737km²
Drop
1,663m
from 1,702 m to 39 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
1,044 km of river and 18 stops on the way: 6 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmWest Fork Gila Riverat 1,702 m
- 72 kmGila285 people
- 75 kmCliff284 people
- 213 kmGila River Bridge
- 221 kmSan Francisco Rivertributary
- 270 kmSafford9,683 people
- 312 kmFort Thomas319 people
- 386 kmSan Carlos Lake15 km²
- 433 kmWinkelman Bridge
- 435 kmSan Pedro Rivertributary
- 462 kmKelvin Bridge
- 513 kmFlorence31,110 people
- 528 kmUP Gila River Railway Bridge
- 645 kmSalt Rivertributary
- 645 kmAgua Fria Rivertributary
- 671 kmBuckeye50,876 people
- 701 kmGillespie Dam Bridge
- 903 kmAntelope Hill Highway Bridge
- 957 kmMcPhaul Suspension Bridge
- 1,044 kmColorado Riverat 39 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Arizona and New Mexico in the United States
At the mouth it carries 172 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 15 seconds. It drops from 1,702 m to 39 m, 1.6 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 150,737 km², about the size of BD. 5.9 million people live in it. Highest water: from January to March; lowest: from June to July. It is heavily dammed: reservoirs can hold 207% of a year's flow.
Where to start
- BuckeyeLargest city on its banks · 50,876 people
- Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 54 km from the cityCar hire at PHX airport (Phoenix)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water3 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From March to May and from October to NovemberThe best months to visit
Gila River, month by month
Highest water: from January to March
Lowest water: from June to July. Best months to visit: from March to May and from October to November.
From about 14 m³/s in the lowest month to 190 m³/s in the highest. An estimate: the monthly flow is modelled from the lowest and highest months of WaterGAP (RiverATLAS, 1971–2000) and the rain and snow along the river (WorldClim). Dams change the real rhythm. The chip is the average air temperature; below it, the month's rain.
Plan the trip
Plan the trip: boat trips, a bed by the river, a car
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
The basin
Gila River: the basin in numbers
148,872 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 5.9millionpeople live in the basin
- 40/km²people per km²
- 1,156maverage altitude of the basin
- 376mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 16.3°Caverage air temperature
- 14%protected areas
- 0.1%covered by lakes
- 3.8km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 42% Forest
- 2% Cropland
- 41% Pasture
- 3% Towns and cities
RiverATLAS (HydroATLAS v1.0, CC BY 4.0): land cover, people, protected areas, glaciers and dams over the whole basin upstream of the mouth.
Along the river
Gila River: what you find on the way
- 187Weirs
- 3Boat rampsKearny Lake Launch
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.5 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Gila River in our other atlases
What our sister atlases know about the waterfalls on this river, the lakes it flows through, the beaches at its mouth, the mountains where it rises and the islands off its mouth.
1lake on its wayLakeyas
10mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Lakes and reservoirs (1)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- San Carlos Lakekm 33315km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Mountains at the source (10)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Alum Mountain5.2 km away
- Brushy Mountain9.0 km away
- Buck Hannen Mountain8.8 km away
- Copperas Peak7.5 km away
- Granny Mountain14 km away
- Loco Mountain14 km away
- Middle Mountain13 km away
- North Mesa10 km away
2 more on PeakyasOpen Peakyas ↗
From space
The source and the mouth, seen from orbit
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX IT Services GmbH (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016), CC BY 4.0. The glowing line is the river as drawn by RiverATLAS.
Photos
Gila River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Colorado River
Mexico2,334 km640 m³/sTributaries (11)
Also: Salt River, Santa Cruz River, San Pedro River, Agua Fria River, San Francisco River, Hassayampa River, Oak Creek, Eagle Creek, Tenmile Wash, San Carlos River, East Fork Gila River
Where these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q838143) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed along the river network from the point given by Wikidata |
| Flow | WaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate along the river | WorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Towns, bridges, dams | Wikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0 |
| Along the river | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Our other atlases | Lakeyas, Peakyas — Wikidata · CC0; © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0; HydroLAKES · CC BY 4.0; NOAA OISST |
Every source and licence is on the data sources page.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.
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islands
Every island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Coming soonVisit 
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Every river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.You are here
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Every canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit