Pleasant temperatures, plenty of sunshine, outdoor recreation, tasty food, musical entertainment, local history, and natural wonders make Yuma a popular destination for winter visitors.
Yuma is located near the confluence of the Gila and Colorado Rivers in the southwest corner of Arizona, on the border with California and near the border with Mexico.
Home to almost 100,000 residents, the population nearly doubles with the arrival of sun-seeking snowbirds during the peak travel months of January, February, and March.
We first visited Yuma in the late 1990s and found nothing to hold our interest. The swap meets were cool. I like any swap meet I can find a bargain and Old Town was beginning to hold promise. Otherwise I disliked Yuma.
Here was a desert town blessed with a river and you couldn’t even find the river, just a place of overgrown brush and littered garbage. I revisited Yuma a few years later and nothing changed. The town felt rundown and having a trashy core seemed to impact everything.
Fair or not, I was done with Yuma.
Or so I thought. Eventually I thought I’d give Yuma another try.
And what a difference! The transformation was amazing. Where there had been piles of garbage, there was a park. Where there had been a tangle of overgrowth, there were lighted pathways, picnic tables, sandy beaches, and groves of cottonwood trees.
The river existed. And it flowed right through the heart of town. And I realized what had been missing. The Colorado River is more than a waterway. It is the beating heart of Yuma.
Using La Quintas Oasis RV Resort as our home base we recently spent a month exploring the Yuma area. Big-rig friendly, La Quintas Oasis is a 55+ park with 460 sites. Easy-on easy-off (I-8; Exit 12 on North Frontage Road) the park has wide paved streets. Pull-through sites are in the 70 foot range with ample space. Back-in sites are 60+ feet in length and 35 feet wide. La Quintas Oasis has a good feel and the neighbors are friendly.
Yuma has a rich history which dates back more than a century, to the days of the Wild West where the streets were dusty and the Colorado River flowed untamed. Whether you’re a history buff or have a curious interest in how Yuma became the Gateway of the Great Southwest, we have a list to lead you to some of the area’s top attractions.
The story of water and its impact on the people and land is the key to understanding the history of Yuma. Sitting at the narrows of the Lower Colorado River is the oldest city established on the river.
Today, Yuma has about 150 acres of public parkland along the river, connected by miles of paved biking and walking paths, plus hundreds of acres of easily accessible wildlife habitat just steps from downtown. Two historic state parks—Colorado River and Yuma Territorial Prison—anchor the historic North End while public and private investment has helped to spark downtown development.
The catalyst for change was the creation of the Yuma Crossing National Heritage Area, an independent nonprofit corporation authorized as a federal heritage area by Congress in 2000.
The Colorado River State Historic Park (formerly Yuma Crossing State Historic Park) sits on the bank of the Colorado where river captains once sailed from the Gulf of California to unload supplies then kick up their heels in the bustling port of Yuma.
The park is the site of the U.S. Army Quartermaster Supply Depot, a supply house for the military posts in the Southwest. Ocean vessels brought supplies around the Baja Peninsula from California to Port Isabel, near the mouth of the Colorado. From there, cargo was loaded onto smaller steamships and brought upstream to Yuma. The depot operated from 1864 until 1883, when the arrival of the railroad made the long steamship route unnecessary.
Yuma’s storied history as a Colorado River crossing point is only scratching the surface. It seems like we never run out of things to see and do in Yuma. So let me state for the record. I was wrong. Yuma is truly a remarkable and interesting town for snowbirds to explore. And I’m glad to be back in Yuma.
Worth Pondering…
Certainly, travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.
—Miriam Beard