The Gila River Valley is a multi-sectioned valley of the Gila River

Gila River

The Gila River is a tributary of the Colorado River, 650 miles long, in the southwestern states of New Mexico and Arizona.-Description:...

, mostly in Arizona

Arizona

Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...

. The Gila River

Gila River

The Gila River is a tributary of the Colorado River, 650 miles long, in the southwestern states of New Mexico and Arizona.-Description:...

 forms in western New Mexico

New Mexico

New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...

 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

Phoenix, Arizona

Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...

 valley region-(where Phoenix, in the Salt River

Salt River (Arizona)

The Salt River is a stream in the U.S. state of Arizona. It is the largest tributary of the Gila River. The river is about long. Its drainage basin is about large. The longest of the Salt River's many tributaries is the Verde 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

Mohawk Valley (Arizona)

The Mohawk Valley is a valley in the lower regions of the western Gila River Valley in southwestern Arizona in the western Sonoran Desert....

, and Hyder Valley

Hyder Valley

The Hyder Valley is a 20 mile long valley section of the Gila River Valley at Hyder on the Gila River. The valley is located north of Gila River in southwest Arizona in the northwestern Sonoran Desert...

).

Two mountain ranges are named for the Gila River: the Gila Mountains (Graham County)

Gila Mountains (Graham County)

The Gila Mountains is a mountain range in central-east Arizona. It borders the Gila River and Gila Valley on the valley's northeast in north-central Graham County; also the San Carlos Indian Reservation...

 bordering the Gila River valley, northeast of Safford

Safford, Arizona

- History :Safford was founded by Joshua Eaton Bailey, Hiram Kennedy and Edward Tuttle, who came from Gila Bend, in southwestern Arizona. They left Gila Bend in the winter of 1873-74; their work on canals and dams having been destroyed by high water the previous summer...

; the Gila Mountains (Yuma County)

Gila Mountains (Yuma County)

The Gila Mountains is a mountain range in southwestern Arizona in the northwestern Sonoran Desert.The Gila Mountains of Yuma County are a northwest-southeast trending mountain system, about 26 miles long; the fault-blocked mountain range is attached on the south to the Tinajas Altas Mountains...

 border the Gila River valley before the Gila River joins its confluence with the Colorado River

Colorado River

The Colorado River , is a river in the Southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, approximately long, draining a part of the arid regions on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains. The watershed of the Colorado River covers in parts of seven U.S. states and two Mexican states...

; that range is east of Yuma

Yuma, Arizona

Yuma is a city in and the county seat of Yuma County, Arizona, United States. It is located in the southwestern corner of the state, and the population of the city was 77,515 at the 2000 census, with a 2008 Census Bureau estimated population of 90,041....

 and the Fortuna Foothills

Fortuna Foothills, Arizona

Fortuna Foothills is a census-designated place in Yuma County, Arizona, United States. The population was 20,478 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Yuma Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:...

.