Jack Smith Memorial Park is located at the terminus of River Road on the Colorado River in Needles, California. In 2006 the City of Needles received a grant from California Department of Boating and Waterways in which we expanded the park to accommodate 110 boat spaces added two rest rooms and a 4-lane launch ramp and dredged the channel deeper.

Needles is a city in San Bernardino County, California, in the Mojave Desert region of Southern California. Situated on the western banks of the Colorado River, Needles is located near the California border with Arizona and Nevada. The city is accessible via Interstate 40 and U.S. Route 95.

Topock Gorge on the Colorado River just south of Needles, CA is often refered to as a miniature Grand Canyon with its colorful, steep rocky walls and abundant wildlife. Topock Gorge is a little over four miles long, located approximately three and a half miles south of the I-40 bridge at Topock, AZ. The Gorge is part of the designated Havasu National Wildlife Refuge and a favorite place for boaters, kayakers and canoeists to enjoy the splendor of hundreds of species of birds, big-horn sheep and wild burros. Sandy beaches are in abundance along the shores of the Gorge; and with the heart of the Topock Gorge a no-wake zone, it’s easy to pull up and enjoy the day without the worry of large wakes breaking on the shoreline.

There are many jump rocks along the Topock Gorge, both on the Arizona and California sides of the shorelines. With the waters at least ten degrees cooler than Lake Havasu itself, the Topock Gorge is a respite for locals and visitors alike during the dog-days of summer.

The Colorado River, major river of Southwest US, begins in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and flows southwest for 1,450 miles into the Sea of Cortez in northwestern Mexico.

The lower end of the Colorado River is flanked by two great deserts, the Mojave and the Sonoran. In a subsection of the Sonoran Desert comprising the Colorado and Yuma deserts lies the Salton Trough (Salton Basin), a large structural depression extending to the northwest from the head of the Sea of Cortez for a distance of 150 miles.