The San Cristobal Wash is an

ephemeral Ephemerality (from the Greek word , meaning 'lasting only one day') is the concept of things being transitory, existing only briefly. Academically, the term ephemeral constitutionally describes a diverse assortment of things and experiences, f ...

wash and watercourse of the

San Cristobal Valley The San Cristobal Valley is a valley in the lower regions of the western Gila River Valley in southwestern Arizona in the western Sonoran Desert. The San Cristobal Wash drains northwest, but exists only in the southern half of the valley. The S ...

, flowing north into the

Gila River Valley The Gila River Valley is a multi-sectioned valley of the Gila River, located primarily in Arizona. The Gila River forms in western New Mexico and flows west across southeastern, south-central, and southwestern Arizona; it changes directions as i ...

of the southwestern desert region of Arizona. Besides

Death Valley Death Valley is a desert valley in Eastern California, in the northern Mojave Desert, bordering the Great Basin Desert. During summer, it is the hottest place on Earth. Death Valley's Badwater Basin is the point of lowest elevation in Nort ...

, the

Chihuahuan Desert The Chihuahuan Desert ( es, Desierto de Chihuahua, ) is a desert ecoregion designation covering parts of northern Mexico and the southwestern United States. It occupies much of far West Texas, the middle to lower Rio Grande Valley and the lo ...

area, and regions of Baja Peninsula North America, the southeast California deserts along the

Lower Colorado River Valley The Lower Colorado River Valley (LCRV) is the river region of the lower Colorado River of the southwestern United States in North America that rises in the Rocky Mountains and has its outlet at the Colorado River Delta in the northern Gulf of C ...

, this drainage region is in the harshest desert regions of North America. The wash flows northwesterly with the alignment of the northwest-southeast trending mountains and valleys of the former Basin and Range mountain ranges. The washes and arroyos combine into the San Cristobal Wash which enters the

at the south. The wash ends its watercourse one third of the way into the valley, and disappears about south of the

Gila River The Gila River (; O'odham ima Keli Akimel or simply Akimel, Quechan: Haa Siʼil, Maricopa language: Xiil) is a tributary of the Colorado River flowing through New Mexico and Arizona in the United States. The river drains an arid watershed of ...

. The majority of the wash lies in the southeast of Yuma County, but southeast drainages from the Growler Valley area drain extreme western

Pima County Pima County ( ) is a county in the south central region of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,043,433, making it Arizona's second-most populous county. The county seat is Tucson, where most of the populati ...

. Southern portions of the San Cristobal Wash extend to the southern ends of two valleys and the drainage bifurcates, draining the

Mohawk Valley The Mohawk Valley region of the U.S. state of New York is the area surrounding the Mohawk River, sandwiched between the Adirondack Mountains and Catskill Mountains, northwest of the Capital District. As of the 2010 United States Census, ...

southeasterly on the west and the southern-(south-flowing into headwaters of San Cristobal Wash), Growler Valley, on the east. Drainages going northwest combine from the southeast into the San Cristobal Wash: the Growler Wash from the

Growler Valley The Growler Valley is a valley of south-central Arizona west of Ajo, Arizona. Growler Valley is a 65-mile (105-km) long valley paralleling the Growler Mountains on the east-(attached to the Little Ajo Mountains), and the Granite Mountains on ...

east of the

Granite Mountains (Arizona) The Granite Mountains of Arizona is a mountain range in the Sonoran Desert of southern Arizona. It is located in extreme western Pima County, Arizona, bordering southeast Yuma County. The Granite Mountains are an 18-mile (29 km) long rang ...

, and east of there the Daniels Arroyo, which flows adjacent to the ''

Tenmile Wash Tenmile Wash is an ephemeral wash and watercourse about long in the northern Sonoran Desert of south-central Arizona. It forms the eastern drainage of a two drainage system of dry washes into the Gila River Valley; both flow northwesterly, and th ...

Drainage'' in the

Childs Valley The Childs Valley is a valley in the Sonoran Desert of south-central Arizona northwest of Ajo. Upstream sections are located in far western Pima County; downstream it merges into the Gila River Valley in southwestern Maricopa County. Upstream, t ...

of southern Arizona, Pima County. The Tenmile Wash Drainage is the next upstream drainage on the south, to the Gila River-(before the Gila makes its turn from the north). Downstream, the next and last watershed drainage for the Gila River is the ''Lower Gila Watershed''. The southeast border of the San Cristobal drainage is the ''Tule Desert Drainage'', where the

Tule Desert (Arizona) The Tule Desert is a small desert located in southwestern Arizona near the U.S.-Mexico border. It is considered to be part of the Lower Colorado Valley region of the Sonoran Desert. It lies in a north–south direction to the east of the Cabeza ...

has a drainage south into

Sonora Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora ( en, Free and Sovereign State of Sonora), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is divided into 72 municipalities; the ...

, Mexico.

External links

San Cristobal Wash Watershed Map

Lower Gila Watershed Map

Tule Desert Watershed Map
{{Authority control Washes of Arizona Rivers of Yuma County, Arizona Rivers of Pima County, Arizona Tributaries of the Gila River

See also

External links