Driving Directions

To get to the Visitor Center:

From Lake Havasu City, Arizona, follow Arizona Highway 95 south approximately 17 miles. The entry road to the visitor center and associated trails and fishing docks is on the right-hand side of the road (34.291554, -114.104776) at mile marker 161.  

From Parker, AZ follow Arizona Highway 95 north approximately 16 miles. Refuge Headquarters/ Visitor Center will be on the left-hand side of the road. 

Fees

There is no charge to visit. 

Restrooms

Restrooms are available inside the refuge visitor center, with vault toilets at the trail head of the Peninsula Trail and near the fishing docks. 

This IBA is a stopover for neotropical migrants using the Colorado River flyway as well as being important wintering habitat for many northern species. Overall 343 species have been recorded on the refuge. Species of special conservation status and interest that use the habitats within this IBA include:

Breeding: California Black Rail, Yuma Clapper Rail, American Bittern, Clark’s Grebe, Cooper’s Hawk, Elf Owl, Burrowing Owl, Snowy Egret, Great Egret Southwestern Willow Flycatcher, Western Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Bell’s Vireo, Crissal, Bendire’s and Curve Billed Thrashers, Lucy’s Warbler, Yellow Warbler, Yellow-breasted Chat. Bell’s Vireo estimated numbers is 2700 individual birds.

Migration: American Avocet, Western Grebe, Tree Swallow, Peregrine Falcon, Merlin, Bald Eagle.

Situated in central-western Arizona along the Lower Colorado River, the Bill Williams River National Wildlife Refuge offers a glimpse into what this landscape looked like hundreds of years ago. Today the refuge holds one of the last stands of naturally regenerated cottonwood-willow forest along the Lower Colorado River and is one of the last ecologically functioning river habitats in the southwest United States. In 1993, 6,100 acres of the Havasu Lake National Wildlife Refuge was designated as Bill Williams River National Wildlife Refuge due to its uniqueness and diversity of habitat.