Four Marinas, Two Reservoirs, and 1.5 Million Acres of Desert Recreation
Four marina hubs. Two reservoirs. Nearly 1.5 million acres of desert and water spread across Nevada and Arizona. The America250 initiative is a good chance to step back and look at the whole picture, not just one marina at a time. As a proud part of the Adventures Unbound family, our operation is the umbrella that holds it all together.
The History
Our marinas, RV villages, and houseboat hubs sit at Callville Bay, Cottonwood Cove, Temple Bar, and Willow Beach, each with its own character and its own slice of Colorado River history, all inside Lake Mead National Recreation Area.
The concession services support recreation on Lake Mead and Lake Mohave, the two reservoirs formed along the Colorado River by Hoover Dam, completed in 1935, and Davis Dam, completed in 1951. Together, the dams transformed the river corridor into a major recreation destination. The surrounding Lake Mead National Recreation Area was established in 1936 as the first national recreation area in the U.S. park system, and it now protects nearly 1.5 million acres of desert and water landscapes, attracting millions of visitors each year.
One of the most striking ways to experience the layered history of the recreation area is the Historic Railroad Tunnel Trail, which follows the original rail bed used to haul materials to the Hoover Dam construction site. Walking through the tunnels is a direct, physical encounter with the scale of what was built here in the 1930s, and a reminder of how the construction era shaped the entire region’s modern infrastructure.
Whether you launch from Callville Bay, Cottonwood Cove, Temple Bar, or Willow Beach, you are stepping into the same long tradition of public-land hospitality that has served generations of visitors across these two reservoirs.
The Connection
The desert Southwest is the homeland of the Southern Paiute, Chemehuevi, Mojave, Hualapai, and Ancestral Puebloan peoples, whose long stewardship of the Colorado River corridor predates everything else in the area’s history. Their relationship with the river is the deepest layer of this place, and it is the foundation on which every later chapter rests.
A trip across the Lake Mead Mohave Adventures network is a chance to take in the whole arc of the region in a single visit: ancient trade routes at Willow Beach, a buried Mormon port at Callville Bay, an Army outpost at Cottonwood Cove, and a remote stargazing marina at Temple Bar. Each location offers a different lens on the same river, and the umbrella of Adventures Unbound keeps it all connected.
For more America250 stories from across our properties, visit Adventures Unbound’s America250 page.
