Havasu National Wildlife Refuge, Protected wetlands reserve along Colorado River in Lake Havasu City, US.

Havasu National Wildlife Refuge stretches along the Colorado River where the Sonoran and Mojave deserts meet, creating a mix of different habitats. The site includes wetlands and shoreline areas that support a wide range of wildlife.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt created this refuge in 1941 to protect vital breeding and resting areas for migratory birds along the Colorado River. This action helped secure key stopover points for bird populations moving through the region.

The refuge sits next to Historic Route 66, where travelers encounter signs about wild burros that roam here, linking nature conservation with American road culture.

Access to the Colorado River is concentrated at Five-Mile Landing, a 35-acre (14 ha) site at Topock Marsh in the northern part of the refuge, where a concessioner has operated boat ramps, canoe rental, campsite, RV sites and a store. Birders head for Topock Marsh, one of the larger birding sites in the lower Colorado River valley between Hoover Dam and the Colorado River Delta; Catfish Paradise sits at its southern end. Boaters use the gorge to cross the 30 river miles of protected shoreline.

Topock Gorge is the 20-mile (32 km) stretch where one of the last natural sections of the lower Colorado River still flows, between Needles, California, and Lake Havasu City, Arizona. Boaters pass cliff walls where desert bighorn sheep and cougars live; thousands of bats emerge at dusk from historic mines in the refuge.