The main part of the valley lies in southwest Mohave County, Arizona and is at the intersection of the southeast Mojave and northwest Sonoran deserts.

Needles on Interstate 40 lies on the southwest margin of the valley overlooking the Havasu National Wildlife Refuge and Topock Marsh.

The village of Topock is located at the south end of the valley where the Chemehuevi Mountains of California restrict the Colorado to the narrow Mohave Canyon.

The southeast of the valley meets the outfall of Sacramento Wash, and associated drainage plains; Sacramento Valley itself is mostly east and south of the Black Mesa section at the south of the Black Mountains (Arizona); the Sacramento Wash turns due west, and follows Interstate 40 in Arizona as it turns west and parallels the wash to meet Needles at the Colorado River; it is also the southern drainage outfall point into the Topock Marsh, at Topock, eastern shore of the Colorado River, in the southeast valley.

Other washes drain through the eastern Mohave Valley plains and foothills into the Topock Marsh from the southwest of the Black Mountains, the extensive range which goes north 75 miles (121 km) to Lake Mead.