Brawley Wash is an

ephemeral stream A stream is a continuous body of surface water flowing within the bed and banks of a channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to by a variety of local or regional names. Long large streams ar ...

, tributary to the Santa Cruz River, located in

Pima County Pima County ( ) is a county in the south central region of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,043,433, making it Arizona's second-most populous county. The county seat is Tucson, where most of the population ...

. Its source is in the

Altar Valley The Altar Valley is a 45-mile (72 km) long north–south valley, trending slightly northeast from Sasabe, Arizona on the Mexico border to the Avra Valley west of the Tucson Mountains. It is delimited by Arizona State Route 86, from east-to-w ...

between the Sierrita and

Coyote Mountains The Coyote Mountains are a small mountain range in San Diego and Imperial Counties in southern California.''El Cajun, California,'' 30x60 Minute Topographic Quanrangle, USGS, 1979 The Coyotes form a narrow ESE trending wide range with a length ...

at , at the confluence of the Altar and Alambre washes along

Arizona State Route 286 State Route 286 (SR 286) is a highway in southern Arizona that runs from its junction with State Route 86 west of Tucson to the U.S.-Mexico border at Sasabe. It is largely a north–south route. Route description The southern terminus of ...

. It flows north-north east through the Altar Valley and turns north as it enters

Avra Valley The Avra Valley is a 50-mile (80 km) long northwest–southeast valley, bordering the west of Tucson, Arizona. The Tucson Mountains are at the valley's center-east, with suburbs ranging east of the Tucson Mountains and trending northwest to ...

near Robles Junction (also known as Three Points) where

Arizona State Route 86 State Route 86 (or SR 86) is a state highway in southern Arizona that stretches from its junction with State Route 85 in Why east to its junction at 16th Avenue east of Interstate 19 in Tucson. It formerly went east to the New Mexico border nea ...

crosses the streambed. The wash traverses the Avra Valley between the Roskruge Mountains and the

Tucson Mountains The Tucson Mountains (O'odham: Cuk Doʼag) are a minor mountain range west of Tucson, Arizona. The Tucson Mountains, including Wasson Peak, are one of four notable mountain ranges surrounding the Tucson Basin. The Santa Catalina Mountains lie ...

. It joins the Santa Cruz east of the Samaniego Hills of the Silver Bell Mountains. The wash is known as the Los Robles Wash near its junction with the Santa Cruz approximately six miles west of Avra and

Interstate 10 Interstate 10 (I-10) is the southernmost cross-country highway in the American Interstate Highway System. I-10 is the fourth-longest Interstate in the United States at , following I-90, I-80, and I-40. This freeway is part of the originally pl ...

. The name is supported by the

Geographic Names Information System The Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) is a database of name and locative information about more than two million physical and cultural features throughout the United States and its territories, Antarctica, and the associated states of ...

References

{{authority control Rivers of Pima County, Arizona Santa Cruz River (Arizona) Rivers of Arizona