The wash hugs the eastern portion of the Piute Valley, and in the southeast of the valley, the wash skirts the west of the Dead Mountains, then traverses the southwest and south perimeter of the Dead Mountains, then descends steeply toward its outfall into the Colorado River in California adjacent Needles.

In the southwest a water divide separates the Ward Valley draining southwestwards into San Bernardino County.

A narrow drainage from the Newberry and Dead Mountains drain into the Havasu-Mohave Lakes Watershed.

To the north of the Piute Wash watershed and Searchlight is the north-flowing Eldorado Valley, an endorheic basin that forms a dry lake.

[citation needed] The elevation of Piute Wash outfall at the Colorado River, just north of Needles, is 488 feet (149 m).