Picacho State Recreation Area

Picacho State Recreation Area
Location Imperial County, California, USA
Nearest city Winterhaven, California
Coordinates 33°1′30.53″N 114°36′32.21″W / 33.0251472°N 114.6089472°W / 33.0251472; -114.6089472Coordinates: 33°1′30.53″N 114°36′32.21″W / 33.0251472°N 114.6089472°W / 33.0251472; -114.6089472

Picacho State Recreation Area is a camping, boating, and general recreation area located on a 9-mile stretch of the lower Colorado river at the site of Picacho, a defunct gold mining town.

Picacho is a popular wintertime/springtime destination for boating, fishing, hiking and camping. This remote park is located in the far southeastern corner of California and includes 54 campsites, 3 boat launches, and 5 river camps. Favorite activities at the park include stargazing, and bird and wildlife viewing (including the famous desert resident, the Bighorn sheep).

The mining town of Picacho sat on this spot in the early 1900s. The remains of a stamp mill that was used to crush the gold ore during mining operations is a popular hiking destination.

This section of the Colorado River is a popular stopover for migratory waterfowl - ducks, geese, ibis and cormorants - usually seen by the thousands in spring and fall. Other waterfowl are found here year round.

Proposed for closure

Picacho State Recreation Area is one of the 48 California state parks proposed for closure in January 2008 by California's Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger as part of a deficit reduction program.[1]

Closure again seemed imminent in 2012 as a part of California's sweeping 70-park closure plan. However, Picacho SRA was never closed, and is fully operational as of 2013. A non-profit group Friends4Picacho was formed in 2012 to promote its continued operation.

Fish species

General information

References


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/19/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.