The Sentinel Plain is an extensive northwest–southeast trending

plain In geography, a plain, commonly known as flatland, is a flat expanse of land that generally does not change much in elevation, and is primarily treeless. Plains occur as lowlands along valleys or at the base of mountains, as coastal plains, and ...

south of 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 ...

in southwestern

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

, United States. It is centered on the community of

Sentinel, Arizona Sentinel is an unincorporated community in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States. It has an estimated elevation of above sea level. The train station served the US Army training camps: Camp Horn and Camp Hyder during World War II Wo ...

located on

Interstate 8 Interstate 8 (I-8) is an Interstate Highway in the southwestern United States. It runs from the southern edge of Mission Bay at Sunset Cliffs Boulevard in San Diego, California, almost at the Pacific Ocean, to the junction with I-10, ...

, approximately west of

Gila Bend Gila Bend (; O'odham: Hila Wi:n), founded in 1872, is a town in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States. The town is named for an approximately 90-degree bend in the Gila River, which is near the community's current location. As of the 2020 c ...

. The Sentinel Plain is about long and on the north-northwest, it borders the Hyder Valley and the farming community of

Hyder Hyder can refer to: Places *Hyder, Alaska, U.S. ** Hyder Seaplane Base * Hyder, Arizona, U.S. ** Hyder Valley * Hyder Creek, is a river in New York, U.S. Other uses *Hyder (defunct company), a former Welsh utility company **Hyder Consulting, a su ...

on 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 ...

. To the northeast is Painted Rock Reservoir and the Painted Rock Mountains. The south and southwest of the Sentinel Plain is bordered by the

Crater Range A crater is a landform consisting of a hole or depression on a planetary surface, usually caused either by an object hitting the surface, or by geological activity on the planet. A crater has classically been described as: "a bowl-shaped pi ...

; the east and southeast is bordered by the White Hills, and the Saucedo Mountains. Midway Wash drains into the center of the plain southeast-northwesterly, but disappears into the ground about 10 miles southeast from the Gila River. The west and southwestern border of the plain contains the northwest-flowing

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 the ...

-(which also succumbs to ground disappearance, but adjacent to the Gila), and the northwest trending Crater Range.

References

Plains of Arizona Landforms of Maricopa County, Arizona Landforms of Yuma County, Arizona {{Arizona-geo-stub

See also

References