Gateway Park is a City of Yuma park on the Arizona bank of the Colorado River in historic downtown Yuma, where Madison Avenue and Gila Street run down to the water near 1st Street. It sits at the old Yuma Crossing, the narrow point where travelers forded the river for centuries, and it is squeezed between two bridges: the Interstate 8 span overhead and the 1915 Ocean-to-Ocean Highway Bridge with the railroad bridge beside it. The far bank is California. The Yuma Territorial Prison sits on the bluff just above the park.

Getting there is simple from downtown. Follow Madison Avenue or Gila Street north to the river and park in the city lots, many of which sit in the shade of the freeway. The paved Colorado River levee path runs through the park, west past Pivot Point Plaza toward West Wetlands Park and east toward the East Wetlands, so you can also walk or ride in. A private outfitter, Yuma River Tubing, runs a shuttle from West Wetlands up to Gateway Park for a float of about an hour back downstream, and plenty of people bring their own tubes and do the same.

The swim area is a sandy river beach right beside the I-8 bridge, and the shade from the freeway deck is the main reason it fills up on summer afternoons. You wade in off the sand into a working river, not a pond. The water moves steadily downstream, its level and speed are set by dam releases upstream, and it gets deeper and faster once you leave the edge. The city does not list lifeguards for the river beach, so you are on your own once you are in the water. Expect the water to feel cool next to Yuma's summer air, which regularly tops 100 degrees.

Entry and parking are free, and there is no day-use fee. Under city park rules, Gateway Park is open from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. Three ramadas can be rented from the city: number 37 next to the beach, number 38 by the playground and number 39 on the upper level by the parking lot. The rest of the park, beach included, needs no reservation.

Take the current seriously. The Yuma Fire Department has pulled people out of the river twice in one afternoon, including a group of young tubers who drifted past their exit, and it urges everyone to wear a life jacket, plan an entry and exit point before getting in, never float alone and skip the alcohol. Dense reeds and brush along the banks can trap anyone who misses a take-out. Local TV also reported a four-year-old drowning in the river by the park. Keep small children within reach and in a life jacket, even in the shallows.

Beyond the beach, the park has a playground, grills, picnic tables, fishing docks, restrooms and an outdoor shower for rinsing off sand. Under the freeway stands the Blaisdell Slow Sand Filter Washing Machine, a 1902 piece of the city's early water system listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Pivot Point Plaza, a short walk west, marks where the first train entered Arizona in 1877 and displays a 1907 steam locomotive. Downtown Main Street and the territorial prison museum are both within walking distance.