Yuma's state parks return to extended seasonal hours
With temperatures cooling and tourist season returning, hours are expanding at Yuma, Arizona's two historic state parks. Yuma Territorial Prison, and the recently renamed Colorado River State Historic Park, are open to visitors now, seven days a week, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Yuma Visitor Information Center, located at the entrance to the Colorado River State Historic Park, will also match those hours.
Yuma Territorial Prison, which had closed for maintenance during part of September, is once again hosting visitors, offering a glimpse back at the Arizona Territory's first penitentiary, which opened in 1876 and housed its last inmates just 33 years later. Visitors can take a self-guided tour which includes views from atop a formidable guard tower, cells carved into rock with ironclad doors, as well as the stories of some of the prison's most fascinating residents, and the story of the deadly Gates Riot.
At the Colorado River State Historic Park, new exhibits have been added and existing ones have been updated to portray the past, present, and future of the Colorado River, which flows through Yuma. Formerly known as the Yuma Quartermaster Depot State Historic Park, buildings such as the Quartermaster Depot, a retired U.S. Army supply hub, are open for visitors to tour. Guided tours are also available. The Yuma Visitor Information Center provides information on what to see and do in and around Yuma, and there is the Yuman Interest Gifts & Souvenirs Shop at the Visitor Center for your Yuma souvenirs.
Cost to enter Colorado River State Historic State Park is $6 per adult, $5 for seniors (62 years of age or older), and $3 for children 7-13 years of age. Children 6 and younger enter free. At Yuma Territorial Prison State Historic Park, admission is $8 per adult, $6 for seniors (62 years of age or older), $4 for children between 7 and 13 years of age, and free for those ages 6 and younger. Military discounts available at both parks; please call ahead for details.
The Sun Runner highly recommends a visit to both parks when you find yourself down Yuma way.
