Colorado River

Cultural  

1. River in the southwestern United States, with its headwaters in the Rocky Mountains of northern Colorado, that flows generally southwest through Colorado, Utah, and Arizona; forms the border between Nevada and Arizona and Arizona and California; and then flows through Mexico, emptying into the Gulf of California.

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Source of fresh water for communities in Nevada, Arizona, and California.

The site of the Hoover Dam.

Over millions of years, the force of the river has carved the Grand Canyon in northwestern Arizona.

Example Sentences

Over the last century, Southern California has grown and thrived thanks to giant aqueducts it built to bring water from hundreds of miles away — the Eastern Sierra, the Colorado River and Northern California.

From Los Angeles Times • May 25, 2026

The warm winter led to the worst year for snowpack in Colorado and Utah on record, meaning less water in the parched Colorado River.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 21, 2026

The Colorado River is running dangerously low, and the seven Western states that rely on it can’t agree on how to share what’s left.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 15, 2026

“We’re putting forward additional measurable water contributions for the system,” said JB Hamby, the chairman of California’s Colorado River Board.

From Los Angeles Times • May 2, 2026

By that time I would be long gone— out of the desert and across the Colorado River.

From "Travels with Charley in Search of America" by John Steinbeck