Parker Travel Guide

Welcome to Parker, AZ, Arizona

Located 162 mi (261 km) west of Phoenix, Parker sits on a mesa overlooking the Colorado River and in the shadow of Arizona's Gibraltar Mountains. The town originated from the establishment of a post office to serve the Colorado River Indian Reservation, in which Parker is situated, and was named after General Eli Parker, Commissioner of Indian Affairs in 1865. There are four tribes located here–the Mohave, Chemehuevi, Hopi and Navajo–and the area is rich in Native American history.   Petroglyphs, intaglios, pictographs and ancient trails can be found throughout Parker’s vicinity while in Parker itself, the Tribal Museum and Library provides information about the unique heritage of the four tribes.

In addition to serving the reservation, the town was historically a supply and shipping center for agriculture and mining activities but access improvements in the mid-1900s, have brought tourists, hunters and boat enthusiasts to the area, replacing industrial services with recreational ones. Most specifically, the town is a gateway to a popular, 16-mi (26-km) stretch of the Colorado River south of Lake Havasu and the Parker Dam. The Parker Strip, as it is sometimes called, is swift and busy with river rafters, water-skiers and anglers while the Emerald Canyon Golf Course and the BlueWater Resort & Casino provide further leisure activities out of the water.