Course of the Colorado River Lake Mead, formed by the -high Hoover Dam about southeast of Las Vegas, Nevada, is the largest reservoir in the United States with a full capacity of and a water surface of nearly . However, the lake has not been full for many years due to a combination of drought and increased water usage by Colorado River Basin states. Situated in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Lake Mead is a popular recreation site – visited by almost 8 million people a year – and a critical source of water for the Las Vegas metropolitan area, Central Arizona and Southern
Cottonwood Valley (Arizona and Nevada) the Black Canyon of the Colorado is now under Lake Mohave. Cottonwood Valley (Arizona and Nevada) Cottonwood Valley is a wide valley, on the Colorado River on the border between Mohave County, Arizona and Clark County, Nevada. It extends east and west from the river into both states and is the first wide valley south of the Black Canyon of the Colorado, the last in a series of great canyons the Colorado River passes through after leaving the Rocky Mountains on its way west and where it makes its turn to the south toward the Gulf of California. All of